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Attention, government auditors! 2024 has brought some new updates to Yellow Book, formerly the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS).
The 2024 revision updated the 2018 version and Introduced significant improvisation on standards for high-quality audits with competence, integrity, and independence, including a revised Continuing Professional Education (CPE) requirement.
The blog here will explain the new changes, what they mean, and their impact on the future of Government auditing.
The Yellow Book or GAGAS outlines the standards and guidelines for government auditors to perform audits and produce reports. The motive is to provide a clear, concise, concrete, and quality audit while reviewing government programs and spending. In addition to standards and guidelines, it contains specific CPE requirements for Individual Auditors and Audit organizations.
Any professionals performing audits in the government environment including
Independent Auditors
Internal Auditors
Government Audit Staff
To maintain their professional competency, they are required to comply with the standards and guidelines and CPE requirements.
The Yellow Book outlines the best practices for conducting audits, ensuring quality and consistency across the audit. With the recent update in the regulations and standards, the focus and approach have shifted from quality control to quality management.
The Yellow Book CPE requirement can be divided into two buckets: one is 56 hours and the second is 24 hours, making 80 hours of CPE every 2 years.
Previously, no specific requirement was made regarding government audits, but in 2024, Yellow Book introduced mandatory CPE hours.
56-Hour CPE Bucket: This area covers general accounting and auditing topics that directly contribute to professional expertise and enhance auditing proficiency. Topics such as IT audits, audit risk assessments, improved written reports, and fraud identification is the potential subject areas to choose from.
24-Hour CPE Bucket: This CPE should be designed specifically and directly related to Government Auditing. Qualified learning and subject areas are specified, such as Single Audits, Uniform Guidance, Green Book (internal control standards), regulations, trends, risks, or topics relevant to government auditing and a specific or unique environment.
Note:- Effective from Jan 1st, 2024 “Taxation” has been deleted by the GAO form list of qualified subject areas. |
Out of the required 80 hours, 20 hours of CPE must be completed each year. However, the Auditor must not complete all 80 hours of CPE in the same year.
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With the specific CPE requirements for Auditors, Yellow Book holds few exemptions.
Nonsupervisory Auditor, if spend less than 40 hours of engagement on GAGAS.
A college or university student, if employed temporarily for GAGAS audit.
The CPE requirements indicate the dedication and commitment of government auditors to actively embrace change and stay relevant in an ever-evolving industry. With continuing professional education, auditors are ensured to possess the most advanced and updated knowledge to deliver high-quality output.
Enhanced Quality and Consistency: Standardization of CPE creates a strong foundation and a baseline of knowledge for auditors, ensuring a standard and high-quality output.
Risk Detection: Appropriate knowledge and skill sets empower government auditors to understand the associated risks and vulnerabilities.
Establishing Public Confidence: A government auditor, well equipped with knowledge acts as a trustee of the public. Their professional efficiency and effectiveness strengthen public trust and integrity.
Focus on Specialized Knowledge: By prioritizing their CP activity, government auditor can develop a specialized set of knowledge, master their domain, and elevate their professional growth.
Don’t let your Yellow Book CPE requirement be a burden but an opportunity to scale your knowledge and elevate your career. Utilize the learning opportunity to deliver high standards and accountability.
Government CPE refers to the approved CPE courses in the qualified subject areas of government audit. Specified by yellow book requirements the 24-hours CPE bucket and the subject such as (Single Audits, Uniform Guidance, Green Book (internal control standards), regulations, trends, risks, etc.) are considered as government CPE.
A fledged update for the Yellow Book by the Government Auditing Standard (GAS) was released with some technical updates in 2018. In mid-COVID-19, in May and August 2020, GAO released an alert to increase attention in a few areas due to increasing fraud risk.
A major update was introduced in 2024, with a framework for performing high-quality audits and a change from quality control to quality management.
Yellow Book 2024 update focuses on quality requirements and ensures that audit organizations comply with professional standards, following legal and regulatory requirements.
In addition to this, it includes;
Achieving quality management with a risk-based process
provisions for optional engagement quality reviews of generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS) engagements
Implementation and guidance on financial audit matters.
Find all other 2024 Yellow Book Updates.
Any individual or professional engaged in audits of federal, state, and local government programs and entities or related organizations that receive government grants must follow the standards of the Yellow Book when preparing and producing their reports.
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