Louisiana Compliance And Attestation Questionnaires

The majority of audits submitted to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor (LLA) are performed under generally accepted government auditing standards or GAGAS. GAGAS requires the auditor to perform tests of the local auditee’s compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements, noncompliance with which could have a direct and material effect on the determination of financial statement amounts, and to report upon the results of these tests in the Independent Auditor’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting and on Compliance and Other Matters Based on an Audit of Financial Statements Performed in Accordance with Government Auditing Standards.

In order to perform these tests, the auditor must determine which laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements are material to the local auditee’s financial statements. Then, the auditor must obtain the representation or signed statement of the local auditee as to whether or not they complied with these laws, regulations, contracts and grant agreements.

Louisiana Compliance Questionnaires (for governmental agencies, quasi-public agencies, and charter schools) provide a list of Louisiana laws that are material to the financial statements of local auditees – in other words, it is important for local auditees to follow these laws and regulations. Different compliance questionnaires are available for local governments, quasi-public organizations, and charter schools.

Local auditees that receive between $200,000 and $499,999 of revenues and other sources (local government agencies) or local and/or state assistance (quasi-public organizations) annually must provide for reviewed financial statements, and a report, prepared by the certified public accounting (CPA) firm that performed the review, with the results of the CPA’s tests of laws and regulations that have been determined to be material to the local auditee’s financial statements. Louisiana Attestation Questionnaires (for governmental agencies, quasi-public agencies, and charter schools) are documents that are similar to Louisiana Compliance Questionnaires but are available for use in review/attestation engagements; along with illustrative agreed-upon procedures reports (for governmental agencies, quasi-public agencies, and charter schools). Like the Louisiana Compliance Questionnaires, there are also different attestation questionnaires for the review/attestation engagements of local governments, quasi-public organizations, and charter schools.

The local auditee prepares and signs the compliance or attestation questionnaire, and the local auditee board (if applicable) adopts it in open meeting. The local auditee then provides the questionnaire to their CPA. The CPA bases his or her tests of compliance on the local auditee’s responses on the questionnaire.

The CPA retains the compliance/attestation questionnaire with their audit/engagement documentation. It is not necessary for the local auditee or the CPA to provide the questionnaire to LLA.