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

Halcyon Ltd engages a firm to provide limited assurance on its greenhouse gas statement. Management says the statement will follow its own internal measurement approach, which has not been published and is applied inconsistently between sites. Which engagement requirement is most directly threatened?

The suitability and availability of criteria is threatened. Assurance criteria must be relevant, complete, reliable, neutral and understandable, and available to intended users. An unpublished measurement approach applied inconsistently across sites fails these characteristics, so the engagement may not be acceptable.

  1. AThe practitioner must obtain a representation letter signed by the board before accepting
  2. BThe engagement must be performed by a practitioner who is a statutory auditor of Halcyon
  3. CThe criteria must be suitable, meaning relevant, complete, reliable, neutral and understandable, and available to intended usersCorrect
  4. DThe practitioner must test every site to obtain reasonable rather than limited assurance

Explanation

Before accepting, the practitioner must determine that the criteria are suitable and available to intended users. Unpublished, inconsistently applied criteria are not reliable, neutral or understandable. Being the statutory auditor is not required, and testing every site is not a requirement for limited assurance.

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