Willie Hucks (WH): Why does the church need auditors?
Paul H. Douglas (PHD): I will respond to your question with one word: confidence. For the members, who are the ultimate stakeholders of the church, there needs to be the confidence in how the church has spent or safeguarded the financial resources they have contributed. Our work as auditors plays a vital role in ensuring that the cycle of credibility (see p. 11) continues without interruption.
Nikolaus Satelmajer (NS): Please define the term stakeholder.
Daniel E. Herzel (DEH): In a corporation, the owners are referred to as stockholders. However, in a not-for-profit organization such as a church, the “owners” are referred to as stakeholders. These are the persons who have a common interest in an organization pursuing its mission and the financial resources that are used.
NS: How is an audit performed?
DEH: There are six phases to an audit engagement (see p. 11). Each of those phases has to be carefully completed to ensure that the report, provided at the conclusion of the audit, represents the facts regarding the financial affairs of the church entity during and at the end of its financial period.
WH: What professional standards govern your audits?
PHD: The church by policy has required the General Conference Auditing Service (GCAS) to hold itself to the highest professional auditing standards. In the United States, they are the Generally Accepted Auditing Standards and internationally, they are the International Auditing Standards. Although we are an internal audit function, the manner in which we conduct our work is equivalent to what would be received from engaging a public accounting firm.
NS: Since you are an internal audit function, are you able to give independent opinions?
DEH: All GCAS auditors are General Conference employees. For that reason, we cannot hold ourselves to be accountants in public practice. However, since we are not employees of, or serve in any managerial capacity with any organization that we audit, we consider ourselves independent enough to provide an opinion regarding their financial information. We are very careful in our opinions to still make reference to being internal auditors since, in the minds of the public, we still would not be considered independent in appearance, which is also required to meet the professional definition of independence.
NS: Since GCAS is a General Conference entity and all the auditors are its employees, who audits the General Conference?
PHD: The General Conference audit is done by a public accounting firm. GCAS auditors assist in the engagement but have no responsibility for the planning, performance, or reporting on the results of the audit.
WH: What types of, and how many, organizations does GCAS audit?
PHD: GCAS has been charged with the responsibility to audit any church organization other than the local congregation. As of December 2008, the total number of such organizations was two thousand, seven hundred and twenty.
WH: Then who audits the local churches?
PHD: Each local conference has the responsibility to have a program to review the financial records of local churches in its territory.
WH: How does a person become a GCAS auditor?
Linda E. Fredlund (LEF): We have a process by which we determine whether or not a person is the right candidate for what we need in a particular area. Beyond aptitude, we are very keen on making sure the person has the right attitude. Once we have identified that particular person, we then go through the rigor of a testing process to ensure that what they have learned in school can be functionally applied. Additionally, we check references before making a final decision.
WH: What types of qualifications do GCAS auditors possess?
LEF: GCAS auditors, at least, hold a bachelor’s degree with an emphasis in accounting. Currently, more than fifty percent possess professional designations such as CPA, ACCA, CA, CIA, etc. We invest in the professional development of our auditors and their pursuit of professional certification in their respective countries.
WH: How many auditors are employed with GCAS?
LEF: We have approximately two hundred auditors, serving from forty-five country office locations around the world.
WH: Who hires the director for GCAS?
LEF: The director position for GCAS is filled by election every five years at a General Conference session upon recommendation by the GCAS Board.
Editor’s note: The General Conference Auditing Board plays a significant role in the operation of the General Conference Auditing Service. The board chairman is Jack L. Krogstad. He is Union Pacific Endowed Chair in Accountancy at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, United States, and currently serves as an academic fellow in the Office of the Chief Accountant of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
NS: What is the role of the GCAS Board? How does it function and how does it relate to the staff of GCAS?
Jack L. Krogstad (JLK): The GCAS Board is elected every five years at a General Conference session and is chaired by a layperson. The board is the governance and oversight mechanism instituted by the church to ensure the structural independence of GCAS and to promote responsible financial reporting policies and practices throughout the church.
WH: What is the composition of the audit board?
JLK: There are eighteen persons on the board. Five are General Conference employees—president , secretary, treasurer, a vice president, and the director of GCAS. The remaining thirteen are laypersons. These thirteen laypersons have financial or management backgrounds. The policy of the church requires this board to be chaired by a layperson. The board is unique in that the majority of members are laypersons along with the chair.
NS: How long have you been the chair?
JLK: This is my ninth year.
NS: What assurance does the board have that the work done by GCAS meets professional standards? How do you monitor that?
JLK: Our assurance starts by getting a leader with the right set of skills, dedication to the church, and the track record of performance that allows us to expect such a person to be successful in that position. I believe, in Paul Douglas, we have such a leader. GCAS has an external peer review done every three years by an outside public accounting firm. They evaluate the quality control system that GCAS has in place and issue their opinion on how well the system is functioning.
In all the peer reviews that have been done by an outside accounting firm, GCAS has received a favorable opinion. A peer review is the same mechanism used by public accounting firms to ensure the quality of their work meets or exceeds the standards of the industry. The board places a lot of confidence in the GCAS quality control system that has been designed to comply with international standards. Each year, the director provides us with a scorecard on how the system is functioning.
WH: As an accounting professional, what is your assessment of the work performed by the GCAS auditors?
JLK: The quality of work done by GCAS is comparable with the top public accounting firms. GCAS has similar competent, dedicated staff; they follow similar standards and have a standard audit methodology worldwide on par with what the professional standards require.
WH: Overall , would you say church organizations are fulfilling their responsibility of being faithful stewards?
DEH: I had the opportunity to audit not-for-profits organizations before joining GCAS. Comparing those organizations with our church, I can say our church is exceptional. It has always been in the lead among not-for-profit organizations in its accounting and its auditing practices. The results of our audits indicate that church leaders are interested in fulfilling their responsibility to be faithful stewards.
PHD: Not to say that weaknesses are not identified from time to time, but when you put the question in overall terms, I think there is an understanding and appreciation for the whole matter of accountability and of preparing financial statements that reflect clearly the activities that took place. I believe in terms of the administrators being faithful stewards, overall, they are in the mind-set and are moving in that particular direction.
WH: What fulfillment do GCAS auditors gain from their work?
DEH: We have a number of persons who have left positions in public accounting with higher salaries to come and work with GCAS. We believe they have done so because they felt the calling of the Lord to do so. I’m sometimes asked about working someplace else with less travel but have chosen not to do so. Many of our auditors are gone from home seventy-five percent of the year. To find fulfillment in such a demanding assignment can only come from a dedication to serving God and following His direction in our lives.
PHD: For me, I know I’m serving God, and it provides my fulfillment. Our mission statement embodies this fulfillment when it simply states, “we serve God by delivering excellent audit services to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” Serving God is the primary focus of what we do, and in that we find fulfillment. I believe I would speak on behalf of the two hundred auditors we have around the world by saying that they are focused on serving God.
