Material non-conformances are a significant issue for utilities, often bringing with them substantial board and even political ramifications (where the utility is a public enterprise and non-conformances are reported to the responsible minister). Being involved in many statutory audits between us, we have seen first-hand the to-ing and fro-ing in terms of what constitutes a material non-conformance.
Materiality has been raising its head for a while now. As auditors, we often get comments from our auditees on why we have scored something a certain way. The purpose of this paper is to help both auditors and auditees understand the considerations for assigning audit grades.
What-is-Material