Candidates were required to contrast the role of internal and external auditors.

The question was worth 8 marks. Candidates could therefore obtain full marks by identifying four areas to contrast internal and external auditors against (for example, who they reported to) and explain that different in their answer.

Many candidates provided this type of answer, many using a columnar format, which made for clear presentation and clarity of marking. A significant number of candidates obtained full marks for this question. Inadequate answers tended not to provide a clear contrast between the two sets of auditors or be presented as a one long paragraph making individual points difficult and sometimes impossible to identify.

Common errors included:

• Including points which did not appear to be relevant to the role of internal or external auditors. For example, the appointment of the auditor did not appear to affect what the auditor did, although the person the auditor reported to was relevant as this determined the format of report. 
• In some situations, not explaining the points made. For example, stating that both sets of auditors were responsible for detecting fraud, without then going on to explain that the main responsibility rests with internal audit while external audit is concerned with material fraud only.

Overall, answers to this question were of a high standard with many candidates obtaining 8 marks.