Precise and Informative Formatting

5.2 Precise and Informative Formatting

A precise and informative audit report format is closely linked to clear and

understandable information. This section analyses formatting in audit reports and how it supports or hinders the delivery of findings and recommendations.

5.2.1 Basic Rules for Precise and Informative Audit Report Formatting

State auditing standards (2007) provide guidance for auditors to provide precise and informative reports. The audit standard requires auditors to prepare a report summary to present important information to be acted on by users. This summary contains audit objectives and the most significant audit findings and recommendations in a logical, accurate and correct manner. Moreover, the standards provide guidance for an informative format summary, which (i) presents relevant facts to provide clarity and understanding for the users, (ii) uses headings, subheadings and topic sentences (main subject) to facilitate reading and comprehension, and (ii) provides visual aids (such as pictures, schemes, graphicsand maps) to explain complicated issues.

Furthermore, Paragraph 52 of audit standards (BPK RI 2007g: 94) provides guidelines on how auditors can provide a precise or brief report that is no longer than necessary to convey and support the message. Reports with too many details can diminish their quality by concealing the important messages, creating confusion or reducing the Furthermore, Paragraph 52 of audit standards (BPK RI 2007g: 94) provides guidelines on how auditors can provide a precise or brief report that is no longer than necessary to convey and support the message. Reports with too many details can diminish their quality by concealing the important messages, creating confusion or reducing the

Therefore, the state finance audit standard emphasises the requirement for a brief report that avoids too many details and repetition. Under this standard, BPK has direction for providing better quality audit reports that meet the needs of stakeholders.

5.2.2 Survey Results on Precise and Informative BPK Audit Report Formatting

During the survey, respondents were asked whether they agreed that BPK provided

a precise and informative audit report format. The questionnaire results are shown in Figure

5.2 (below)and reveal mainly optimistic responses, with 51 per cent of total respondents ‗agreeing‘ and 21 per cent ‗strongly agreeing‘ The highest ‗strongly-agree‘ response was

provided by the auditors‘ group, with over 40 per cent, while the highest ‗agree‘ response,

66 per cent, was provided by auditees.

Figure 5.2 Survey Results for ‘Format of BPK Audit Reports is Precise and Informative’

Strongly Agree

Strongly disagree

Pe rce ptions

Auditors

Auditees

Members of Parliament

Overall responses

Source: Fieldwork survey from 5 th November 2006 to 25 th March 2007

BPK adopted a new format for its audit report summaries in 2007, meaning reports (i) identify important issues by using different coloured fonts, (ii) provide a succinct BPK adopted a new format for its audit report summaries in 2007, meaning reports (i) identify important issues by using different coloured fonts, (ii) provide a succinct

facts, and (v) analyse findings 54 . These summary audit reports were part of an effort from BPK to provide comprehensive but brief audit reports that would encourage Members of

Parliament to review the reports. BPK ‘s efforts to improve the format of audit reports encouraged positive responses, such as the following comments made by Members of Parliament:

 “BPK audit reports are getting better and easier to read with the summaries of the reports ” (Interview C2).  “With the summary of audit reports from the General Secretariat of Parliament,

BPK audit reports became easier and more interesting to read ”(Interview C5). These excerpts indicate that Members of Parliament, as primary stakeholders of BPK, have taken much interest in audit reportsdue to innovations in how the reports are presented. One

example is created for a summary format of BPK audit reports. Besides the largely positive views, some neutral and negative responses were also

recorded. The highest neutral response, 38 per cent, came from Members of Parliament. Furthermore, 9 per cent of the Members of Parliament, 7 per cent of auditees and 4 per cent of auditors disagreed that BPK provided precise and informative audit reportformatting. This is supported by the following negative opinions made by Members of Parliament:

 “BPK audit reports were too complicated, too thick, and too long” (Interview C4).  “Think about being ‘user friendly’ for audit report formatting. Present audit

findings with the highest priority cases, such as high amounts of money involved or high materiality findings, to be reviewed by the Members, with attractive formatting, such as causative format ” (Interview C3).

 “Audit reports were too thick” (Interview C6).

54 An example of anaudit report summary of Semester I of 2007is available from the BPK website:, www.bpk.go.id (23/01/08).

 “I was reluctant to read BPK audit reports, because of their old style formatting

with long statements and their thickness. I had no time to read them ” (Interview C1).

These excerpts indicate evidence that BPK report formatting was not satisfactory, because the text written in audit reports was too long with too many pages and had lack clear tables, pictures and charts to help readers. The Vice President of Indonesia stated (Kompas

4 th December 2006) that BPK audit findings were too thick, like an encyclopedia, and because of this the President and Ministers could not read all of them. He said , ―We need just their summaries ‖.

In addition, an auditor from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) 55 (Interview F3) suggested adopting ANAO‘s report format with headings, subheadings,

short summaries, tables and figures, a combination of font colours on a white background, and a moderate numbers of pages. Moreover, that reports should emphasise important information by using different font sizes and styles, to help ensure an interesting presentation and benefit reader understanding. The ANAO auditor emphasised that the way auditors present reports is important and significant as it affects the reader‘s willingness to read them.

Therefore, audit reports from BPK were too thick, too long, too complicated and lacked interesting presentation. This situation created difficulties for stakeholders in reading, absorbing and understanding the information provided. Since 2007, BPK has provided a new summary audit report format and has continued to innovate, introducing more appealing lay out, pictures, pie charts, and even short stories. Moreover, BPK has

55 This auditor visited BPK on March 2006 while the researcher was collecting data during the fieldwork.

attempted to obtain information from report producers and readers about expectations regarding audit reports, in particular, fromMembers of Parliament and government.