Physical Evidence
In audits of oversight bodies, the principal means of gathering physical evidence is to observe board or committee meetings.
There are benefits to attending these meetings in person (upon request). Doing so enables auditors to observe board or committee dynamics directly and so obtain a better understanding of context and situations than would be possible by simply reviewing meeting minutes after the fact. This is especially relevant with in camera meetings for which management cannot provide minutes.
However, from a practical standpoint, this kind of evidence is unlikely to be relied on frequently, for different reasons. First, board and committee meetings only occur a few times a year and auditors may have limited occasions to attend these meetings during the audit. Second, what is observed at one meeting may not represent what usually takes place at the meetings. This is especially true if the behaviour of the directors or governors changes because of the auditors’ presence.
For these reasons, observing board or committee meetings may be better considered as a source of knowledge of business information than as a source of evidence to be used to support audit observations.
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