Memoirs of an external auditor (eAudit, business ethics and misguidance) [KPMG 2016-2018]

I was involved in studying banking, business management, and accounting during my two-year contract with KPMG: Sri Lanka as an "Associate Trainee" to an "Associate I" from February 2016 to March 2018.

Because of my excessive mental depression and personal addictions, many of these achievements of my academic, professional, and personal life were confused and somewhat deranged.

Therefore to decode these 3 aspects of my life requires patience and a strong sense of understanding of that relevant time period. (February 2016 - March 2018)

During 2016-2018 of my life all aspects including as a professional, academic student, and also my personal life have been very confusing, to be honest with my readers.

From 2015 June to 2015 December, as an intern at Sampath Bank PLC, I was able to garner a lot of skills and other academic achievements as well as professional skills comparatively to the next coming period as an external auditor at KPMG Sri Lanka. (2016-2018)

This was due to a shift in my drastic academic and professional background in a short period. Therefore it is valid to say my whole life was misguided during the period.

After 2010, my life was accumulating depression due to my academic failures as well as my personal life crises. Therefore in order to recover, I and my parents struggled to stop many aspects of my life from being depreciated negatively. We tried to shift my academic scope during that period (2012-2018). We tried to face depression and other personal life struggles through medical counseling (Psychologists) and psychiatrists in that same period. And also I tried to develop myself with long discussions with my parents at our home leading to many fights verbally, but now I feel they were constructive criticism.

But after 2010 overall my life was a disaster with relevance to growth as well as drastic decreases in goal attainment.

But there was a significant growth since 2015 June, once I joined Sampath Bank PLC as an intern like I said in the 2nd paragraph of this article.

But it took only 1 month (2016 January) to reduce all these skills into nothing or "zero" from what I've gathered in the previous six months (2015 June - 2015 December) due to my personal lack of skills and mental motivation to be a successful individual retaining things I garnered as a professional.

Though the depressive cycle was again repeated like from 2010 to 2013 due to my personal mismanagement of the 3 aspects of life (Professional life, academic life, and personal life) But at least I was able to gain an average level of academic and professional achievement making the development of my skills acceptable in the external world. Therefore this makes my 26 years of my life good and worthwhile. To be honest it was a satisfying period and also a very active period of my life. (2016 - 2018) of 26 years of my life. (1991 - 2018)

In the title of the article inside the brackets, there is a word referring to me being "misguided" as an external auditor at KPMG Sri Lanka.

To go forward with the flow of the article I believe it would be compulsory to include an elaborated study on the word "misguided".

I was assigned to KPMG: Sri Lanka audit division from 2016 February to 2018 March contractually based on industry-based norms. I was assigned to partner Mr. Dhammika Rajapakse, Senior manager Mr. Azeem Uwais, and Manager Mr. Nishantha Adhikari. I worked with one project manager Mr. Chamara Madhushanka. My supervisors during the 2 year period were Mr. Namshan Nawaz, Mr. Zaidh Uwais, Ms. Bhagya, and Mr. Darshana Senanayake. My main location was at Colombo though I traveled to Nawala, Kelaniya, Kohuwala, Cinnamon Gardens, Katana, Ja-Ela, Borella, Katunayake, and again to Katana for my auditing of financial statements. I was assigned to conduct an audit of Internal controls of KPMG: Human Resources Solutions (Pvt) Ltd. based on KPMG: Sri Lanka risk management team request.

Although I was assigned to the audits with given captions of financial statements in several selected companies using several activity processes, It was highly required to follow each step with,

(I) Using eAudit, the electronic auditing, tailormade software of the KPMG global and Sri Lankan firm to complete audit procedures.

(II) Using Sri Lanka Accounting Standards (LKAS) and Sri Lanka Auditing Standards (SLAuS)

(III) Experience and the knowledge related to the relevant LKAS and SLAuS.

(IV) Accuracy of the relevant audited captions of the financial statements and the productivity of the conducted audit procedures.

The following are all the criteria to be achieved in the relevant field I've functioned which requires a lot of accumulated skills. But what happened to me was the inability to achieve the effectiveness of the audit procedures conducted during the 2 years (2016 - 2018) period. If I go further the "efficiency" in conducting the relevant procedures was existent though the synergy required to achieve "productivity" was non-existent.

In a micro-level analysis, my senior audit members required a higher level of accuracy which would have been achieved through "productivity". But was not being able to complete as expected in the relevant audit for the period.

The reason for such a decline in productivity (Synergy) in my professional life was due to my distracted busy lifestyle. This busy lifestyle was a side effect of following a part-time degree program which is a bachelor of science in management and following a professional examination course related to banking and finance which is organized and conducted by the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka. (IBSL) The relevant examination is titled "Intermediate in Applied Banking and Finance - IABF". And also during these two periods of 2016 to 2018, I followed several exams in the operational level of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), and also due to continuous failure I shifted to Accounting exams in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL). I was only left with 2 subjects on the executive level after exemptions. They are "Process, control and Audit (PCA)" and "Management Accounting (MA)". With such a level of work load in education, it was evident to a person to not to go into deep concentrated academic or professional success. Therefore imbalanced "academic life" has had a significant impact on the declined productivity of the "professional life".

I also attended to completing several blogs that are related to my life (work, personal, and education), photography as a hobby, my increased daydreaming, and mental depression, and taking relevant medication also impacted my life to reduce productivity in achieving goals.

Accordingly, once you study the relevant topic of this small article the misguidance of my career as a result of the above two paragraphs. Therefore I believe the reader of this post can get a glimpse of the idea of the use of my word "misguidance".

According to Jagath Bandaranayake's Advanced Level Business Studies: First Part, a business social ethics and responsibilities can be defined as follows. The writer conceptualizes that both these concepts are a part of one. He further elaborates these concepts are used to avoid business misconduct and to enhance business expansion and improvement.

Always it is legally and practically required for every professional to follow up his or her "business ethics" with a much broader sense and with proper conduct using a systematic methodology.

In my professional life, it was a vital factor. I discuss the use of business responsibilities and ethics. In auditing financial statements it is legally regulated by the Sri Lankan government and global institutions to follow them thoroughly for the requirement of the country. In order to make aware, the professionals involved relevant institutions have included these into subjects for further studies. I was also able to learn the code of ethics through the orientation seminar conducted by "The Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AATSL)". They provided a printed book of the relevant code of ethics for Rs. 300/= and also it is available to be freely downloaded from the internet in a "PDF" format from the AATSL website. In this orientation seminar (which was held on 25th November 2017, Saturday) at AAT Centre, Colombo, a senior official described the use of these relevant ethics will enhance the quality of your professional life and the industry.

Comparatively, my use of business ethics has been at a better level. It was stated by the seniors during the audits. It was stated by the seniors during the audits. It is with great pleasure I'm thanking the Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AATSL) for continuing the support they've given me in my career as an accounting technician.

And also many share investments that were done in the year 2015 on the Sri Lankan capital markets were removed due to personal reasons. It was due to maintaining "independence" among the relevant parties not to give a biased opinion or function biased during audits. And also based on compliance requirements of the country it is required to follow the relevant procedures without any investments in the capital market.

Therefore from 2016 to 2018, there was a strong interrelationship between business ethics and my auditing career.

This relationship of ethics and my professional life took quite a negative turn when I was assigned to conduct a financial statement audits and they required some level of combined productivity of completion and ethics in conducting the audit procedures. This negative impact was caused due to the weaknesses included in the completion of my audit procedures during the conduct of audit functions. To avoid these mistakes my seniors or superiors of the audit team took "review" and "correction of mistakes by reconducting procedures" to avoid and lower the risk of producing an audit report with a wrong audit opinion. These reviews of my audit procedure were conducted throughout my 2-year training at KPMG: Sri Lanka.

In the title of this relevant article, the word 'eAudit' refers to a tailor-made software for KPMG global and for KPMG Sri Lanka. This software is used for external Financial Statment Audit (FSA). This software is inbuilt to the relevant laptop which is provided to every employee of the external audit section. I received my laptop in August 2016. I have not much to say about the software, eAudit. The laptop I am provided by the institution is highly protected by firewalls and passwords. Only the IT section or the relevant employee can use this system. This software allows the partner to audit trainee to cross-check all the relevant audit procedures to be completed without the risk of providing an audit report with a wrong opinion. This system or platform has allowed full accessibility with inbuilt internal controls to make sure these functions are handled accordingly to KPMG Audit Methodology (KAM) and relevant controls. I am very thankful to KPMG for giving me this opportunity.

This summarises the 3 words in the title of this relevant article. 

These are some of the memories I had at KPMG Sri Lanka for 2 years.

References

• Business Training Media (2018). Business Ethics Article - Ethics in the Workplace. [Image] Available at https://www.businesstrainingmedia.com/article-businessethics.php [Accessed on 19th October 2020]
• XAML UI Design / Web Applications (2008). eAudIT 2008 desktop application. [Image] Available at http://www.magicwheel.net/webdesign/eAudIT.htm [Accessed on 19th October 2020]
• VectorStock (2020). Auditor and accounting concept vector image. [Image] Available at https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/auditor-and-accounting-concept-vector-19903146 [Accessed on 19th October 2020]
• AATSL (2020). Home page of The Association of Accounting Technicians. [Image] Available at https://www.aatsl.lk/index.php/en/ [Accessed on 19th October 2020]
• Slideshare (2017). KPMG presentation. [Image] Available at https://www.slideshare.net/Rakibulislam49/kpmg-presentation-78593015 [Accessed on 19th October 2020]