CA Final · Advanced Auditing, Assurance and Professional Ethics · Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) & Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Assurance

While performing a reasonable assurance engagement on a company's sustainability report, CA Isha finds that the entity's criteria for measuring 'community investment' are not defined and vary year to year, and management refuses to document them. Which conclusion is most appropriate under the assurance framework?

Suitable criteria are a precondition for any assurance engagement. Since the community investment criteria are undefined and inconsistent, the practitioner should decline or withdraw for that indicator unless suitable criteria are established and agreed, rather than issuing a clean or merely qualified conclusion.

1. AProceed, as the practitioner can develop suitable criteria independently and apply them without informing management
2. BAccept the engagement and give a qualified conclusion only on that indicator
3. CIssue a clean conclusion because criteria are management's responsibility
4. DConclude that a precondition, suitable criteria, is absent for that subject matter, so she should not accept (or should withdraw from) the engagement for it unless criteria are agreedCorrect