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Definition
Conclusions, based on the material observations, provide clear answers to the audit questions.
Instructions
The primary purpose of the report section ‘Conclusions and recommendations’ is to provide clear answers - conclusions - to the [link title="audit%20questions" link="%2Faware%2FPA%2FPages%2FPlanning%2FMain-audit-question.aspx" /]
, and to make related [link title="recommendations" link="%2Faware%2FGAP%2FPages%2FRecommendations.aspx" /]
on how to improve. As such, the conclusions, based on the material observations, must be [link title="presented%20on%20the%20audit%20questions" link="%2Faware%2FPA%2FPages%2FReporting%2FReport-structure.aspx%23Integration-of-audit-questions" /]
. This section also provides an opportunity to repeat, as necessary, the answers to the level 2 questions; draw attention to any links, or patterns, between the findings which have not already been made.
Possible conclusions of the final report should be considered from the planning phase. The audit team needs to assess early on whether clear conclusions are likely to emerge from their work. This will encourage them to think from the outset about the likely messages to be delivered to the target audiences and how to maximise the utility and impact of the report.
It is imperative that the audit results conclude against the stated audit questions; and the conclusions follow logically from the facts and arguments presented in the observations with a clear link to the findings. Conclusions should be based on sufficient, relevant and reliable [link title="evidence" link="%2Faware%2FGAP%2FPages%2FAudit-evidence.aspx" /]
. The information given should convince the reader of the validity of the findings, the reasonableness of the conclusions, and the benefit of implementing the recommendations.
Sound judgement should be exercised in [link title="drawing%20conclusions" link="%2Faware%2FPA%2FPages%2FReporting%2FDrawing-conclusions.aspx" /]
.
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