Part (b) for 10 marks required the advantages and disadvantages to both NAB and Goofy Co of outsourcing their internal audit department. Candidates performed well on this question. Most candidates structured their answers to consider advantages and disadvantages for each of the two entities separately and this helped to generate a sufficient number of points.

It was pleasing to see that many candidates used the small scenario provided to make their answers relevant, as this was not a general requirement, but one applied to Goofy Co and NAB.

Where candidates did not score as well, this was mainly due to a failure to provide sufficient depth to their answers. A common advantage given was “outsourcing saves costs.” This does not discuss with enough detail how Goofy Co would save costs and hence would not score the 1 mark available.

Often candidates then went on to have as a disadvantage “outsourcing costs more money” again with little explanation of how this can occur. A “discuss” requirement is relatively detailed and therefore an answer of just a few words will not be sufficient.