Why are management comments of the audit findings included in the audit report?

Views of Responsible Officials

An effective way to ensure that a report is fair, complete, and objective is to include comments by responsible management officials being audited. Including the views of responsible officials produces a report that shows not only what was found and what the auditors think about it but also what the responsible persons think about it and what they plan to work about it.

Auditors should normally ask responsible officials to comment in writing on the reported findings, conclusions and recommendations, and state their planned corrective actions. A copy of the written comments or a summary of them should be included in the audit report. Auditors should evaluate the comments fairly and objectively. When the comments oppose the report's findings, conclusions, or recommendations, and the auditors agree with the comments, they should modify the audit report accordingly. On the other hand, if the auditors believe the comments are not valid, the auditors should state the reasons for the disagreement in a fair and objective manner.