ISA and ISSAI Compared: A Guide for Financial, Compliance, and Performance Auditors (Public Accounting and Audit)

ISA and ISSAI Compared: A Guide for Financial, Compliance, and Performance Auditors is a practical professional guide for auditors, public finance specialists, audit managers, Supreme Audit Institution staff, internal auditors, consultants, trainers, and students who need to understand the relationship between International Standards on Auditing and International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions. Financial audit, compliance audit, and performance audit do not follow the same logic. A financial audit examines whether financial statements are free from material misstatement. A compliance audit examines whether activities, transactions, and decisions comply with laws, regulations, budget rules, grant agreements, contracts, and other authorities. A performance audit examines whether public resources are managed with economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. The book explains these differences in clear professional language. It shows where ISA and ISSAI align, where they diverge, and how auditors should apply the correct audit approach in daily work. It discusses audit objectives, audit mandates, risk assessment, materiality, evidence, documentation, professional judgement, fraud, going concern, related parties, accounting estimates, audit reporting, compliance findings, performance audit questions, and recommendations for public value. Readers will learn why public-sector audit cannot be treated as a simple extension of private-sector financial audit. Public entities operate under legal mandates, public finance rules, approved budgets, parliamentary scrutiny, grant conditions, public service duties, and direct accountability to citizens. Accurate accounting is important, yet public audit also requires attention to legality, regularity, service results, and responsible use of public money. The book gives particular attention to the practical mapping between ISA and ISSAI. It explains how financial audit relies on assertions, audit risk, materiality, sufficient appropriate evidence, and the audit opinion. It then shows how compliance audit relies on authorities, criteria, evidence of compliance, findings, causes, effects, and recommendations. It also explains how performance audit relies on audit questions, criteria, mixed methods, data analysis, interviews, benchmarking, findings, conclusions, and recommendations. This guide is suitable for professionals who prepare audit plans, review audit files, train audit staff, draft audit reports, or work with public-sector audit institutions. It is also useful for auditors moving from private practice into public-sector audit, and for public-sector finance professionals who need to understand how financial, compliance, and performance audits differ. The book avoids superficial comparison. It focuses on audit work as performed in practice: planning, evidence gathering, sampling, documentation, reporting, stakeholder communication, and follow-up. It explains why a payment may be properly recorded in the accounts yet still be irregular, why a grant may be accurately disclosed yet still be paid to an ineligible recipient, and why a programme may spend its budget correctly yet fail to deliver its intended results. ISA and ISSAI Compared is designed as a structured reference for audit professionals who need clarity, precision, and practical direction. It supports stronger audit judgement, better audit planning, clearer reporting, and more reliable accountability over public resources.