INTRODUCTION
The corner stone of an efficient and effective audit is the planning stage, which unfortunately have been overlooked by public practitioners over the years. This had amongst others, resulted in the inability to identify key risk areas and issues early in the audit, poor prioritisation of significant audit areas and under/over auditing. The Clarity Project had “revitalised” the standards relating to audit planning and risk assessment so as to emphasize the role of planning and risk in the audit process by enhancing the requirements, including related documentation. Increased scrutiny by regulators and professional bodies on public accounting practices has also elevated the importance of planning and risk assessment as a crucial element of the audit approach.