Ican 2023 Audit And Assurance Question 6

At one of the seminars you attended on legal and regulatory frameworks of financial reporting, it was stated that one of the duties of Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) is to provide legal and regulatory frameworks for minimum practice guideline for auditors in Nigeria. To do this, they (FRC) are supposed to ensure that all activities of Registered Auditors, other Assurance Providers and Audit Committee members are regulated, with a view to sustaining best ethical practices capable of promoting quality audit services. It is part of the obligations of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria to conduct practice review of registered professionals. You learnt from the seminar that, for the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria to do this effectively, the Audit Regulation requires external auditors to create audit file for each of the statutory audits carried out and ensure the retention of the working papers and other materials that support the auditor's conclusions in any audit report for a minimum period of seven years. A classmate from the University, who now works in the bank and attended the seminar with you, has asked for further explanation on what is meant by ‘working paper’ and why it is of great importance that a regulator has to be interested in the review when there are other important duties to be carried out.