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ACCA Strategic Professional · Advanced Audit and Assurance (International) · The assurance of sustainability

Before accepting an assurance engagement on Delta Ltd's greenhouse gas statement, the practitioner assesses whether the criteria are suitable. Delta measures emissions using criteria it developed internally, which are not published and are known only to its sustainability team. Which suitability attribute is most clearly lacking?

Availability is lacking. Criteria must be made available to intended users so they can understand how the subject matter was measured. Because Delta's internal criteria are unpublished and known only to its sustainability team, users cannot access them, so the criteria fail this attribute.

  1. AAvailability, because users cannot access the criteriaCorrect
  2. BNeutrality, because the criteria favour the practitioner
  3. CCompleteness, because emissions were omitted from the statement
  4. DReliability, because the practitioner is not independent

Explanation

Suitable criteria under ISAE 3000 (Revised) are relevant, complete, reliable, neutral and understandable, and they must be available to intended users. Criteria known only to the internal team are not available to users. The facts do not mention bias, omissions or independence, so other options are unsupported.

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