An internal audit team is performing an audit of workplace accident claims. Which of the following actions by the audit team best demonstrates due professional care?

Question breakdown

Tests

Apply the due professional care standard to engagement staffing

Difficulty

Medium

Key idea: Due professional care means applying the care and skill a reasonably prudent auditor would use, including making sure the team has the expertise that a complex or specialized subject requires.

How to reach the answer

1. The question asks which action shows the care and skill applied to the engagement as a whole, not which test step is routine.
2. Workplace accident claims involve medical and occupational health judgments that general auditors usually lack.
3. A prudent auditor recognizes that gap and adds a specialist, which reflects due care for complexity and significance.
4. Options B and D are ordinary audit procedures, and option C is uncritical reliance, which works against due care.

Each option

• ACorrect. Adding an occupational health specialist shows the team considered how complex the subject is and made sure it had the expertise to judge the claims competently.
• BIncorrect. Checking claim classification is a standard test step and does not specifically show the prudent care and skill the standard asks for.
• CIncorrect. Accepting reports from the claimant's own doctor without question shows a lack of professional skepticism, which is the opposite of due care.
• DIncorrect. Confirming that accidents happened at work is a normal validity test, and the team cannot do it well without the right expertise anyway.

Common trap: Option D sounds rigorous and fraud-focused, so candidates may treat a thorough test step as due care, overlooking that due care starts with having the competence to judge the evidence.

In practice: When engagements cover health and safety, actuarial, IT security, or engineering areas, the CAE often brings in guest auditors or outside specialists so the team's conclusions hold up.

Remember: Due professional care includes recognizing when a subject needs specialist expertise and getting it, rather than relying on unqualified judgment.

Reviewed by Alexandra Stone.