In relation to fraud, the objectives of our audit are to identify and assess the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud, to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud through designing and implementing appropriate responses and to respond appropriately to fraud or suspected fraud identified during the audit.
However, it is the primary responsibility of management, with the oversight of those charged with governance, to ensure that the entity’s operations are conducted in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations and for the prevention and detection of fraud.
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud, the audit engagement team:
• obtained an understanding of the nature of the industry and sector, including the legal and regulatory frameworks that the company operates in and how the company is complying with the legal and regulatory frameworks;
• inquired of management, and those charged with governance, concerning their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, including any known actual, suspected or alleged instances of fraud; and
• discussed matters concerning non-compliance with laws and regulations and how fraud may occur including an assessment of how, and where, the financial statements may be susceptible to fraud.
Significant laws and regulations having a direct impact on the financial statements:
As a result of these procedures, we consider the most significant laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the financial statements are:
• FRS 102;
• Companies Act 2006; and
• Tax legislation.
We performed audit procedures to detect any non-compliance which may have a material impact on the financial statements. These included reviewing financial statement disclosures, inspecting correspondence with local tax authorities and evaluating tax advice.
Significant laws and regulations having an indirect impact on the financial statements:
The most significant laws and regulations that have an indirect impact on the financial statements are those in relation to Health and Safety. We performed audit procedures to inquire of management and those charged with governance as to whether the company is in compliance with these laws and regulations and reviewed notices published by the Health and Safety Executive. We also made inquiries with those charged with governance to identify any live and material claims or disputes with sub-contractors or clients.
Other risks relating to irregularities, including fraud:
The audit engagement team identified the risk of management override of controls, revenue recognition and estimates made in the valuation of amounts recoverable on contracts as the areas where the financial statements were most susceptible to material misstatement due to fraud. Audit procedures performed included, but were not limited to:
• Testing manual journal entries and other adjustments and evaluating the business rationale in relation to significant, unusual transaction and transactions outside the normal course of business and assessing whether the judgements made in making those estimates are indicative of potential bias.
• Testing a sample of revenue transactions recognised either side of the balance sheet date to determine whether revenue was recorded in the correct period.
• Challenging judgements and estimates applied in the valuation of amounts recoverable on contracts by discussing contract performance, reviewing post-year-end performance of projects and comparing the outturn of projects with the estimates made in preparing the prior year’s financial statements.