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Principles
The scope and approach is important to understanding what the audit or review sought to achieve. Different readers have different needs and expectations. “Front-line" readers such as the [a-glossary term="Discharge%20authority"]discharge authority[/a-glossary]
and media may not read beyond the executive summary. However, readers from the audit and academic community usually welcome more detail, in particular concerning the scope and methodology.
Instructions
Both special and review reports include a scope and approach section. It is important that the reader of the report knows what is included (and excluded) from the scope, as these audits and reviews vary greatly in scope and approach. The reader needs to know what we have done to arrive at our [link title="findings" link="%2Faware%2FPA%2FPages%2FExamination%2FDeriving-audit-findings.aspx" /]
and [link title="conclusions" link="%2Faware%2FPA%2FPages%2FReporting%2FConclusions.aspx" /]
, and in the case of special reports, to appreciate that they are firmly rooted in sound [link title="audit%20evidence" link="%2Faware%2FGAP%2FPages%2FAudit-evidence.aspx" /]
. The scope and approach section should provide a brief summary of work carried out, focusing on what the audit or review was seeking to achieve rather than simply what was done.
For a [link title="review" link="%2Faware%2Freview%2FPages%2Fdefault.aspx" /]
, the scope and approach section should differentiate it from an audit, reducing the risk of an expectation gap. The section should state that “This is not an audit report; it is a review mainly based on publicly available information or material specifically collected for this purpose".
The scope and approach section should include
- the reason for the audit/review, why we decided to do this work at this point in time, and what value we intend our report to add;
- what is included in the scope (including the time period covered by the audit) and, for special reports, the audit questions we answer in the report, which are not necessarily the same as those set out and approved in the
[link title="task%20plan" link="%2Faware%2FPA%2FPages%2FPlanning%2FTask-plan.aspx" /]
;
- the work we carried out to gather the evidence to arrive at our observations and conclusions, or the sources we used to prepare our review, including who we consulted. Further details (if likely to be of interest to readers) can be included in annexes; and
- when appropriate, what aspects are not covered in our report, either through limitations to our scope for reasons beyond our control, or to manage expectations of the reader by clarifying our focus.
The scope and approach section does not
- describe the background to the policy area, since this is covered in the introduction to the report;
- present the structure of the report – this should be evident to the reader from the contents page and the audit questions;
- give the timeline for our work, unless necessary to understand the scope and approach - this is recorded in the timeline table published together with the report;
- include a limitation of scope in cases where it has been difficult to obtain evidence, providing it has been resolved by the time of the chamber reading APC; or
- thank the Commission, member state authorities, stakeholders, etc. for their cooperation.
Resources
The Annex includes examples of good practice on how to present elements in the scope and approach section of your report. The detail you provide on different elements should depend on factors such as the context of your report and the sensitivity of the topic. You can combine points if necessary, and present them succinctly and clearly.
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[icon-list-item title="Examples%20scope%20and%20approach" icon="file-word-o" link="%2Faware%2FDocuments%2FScope-and-approach-example.docx" /]
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