Assurance services on controls at a service organization (ISAE 3402):Measuring of awareness in financial sector in Turkey

Assurance auditing on controls at a service organization is a new type of audit, which is requested by organization that renders or outsources service supports, and performed by auditors. Main subject of this study includes ISAE 3402 standard on Assurance Reports on Controls at a Services Organization, which focuses on controls at a service organization. This study has two principal aims. First one of these aims is to issue a guideline for auditors on how ISAE 3402 standard will be implemented, and the second one is to create awareness on ISAE 3402 standard. Considering the first aim, support is obtained from international audit companies, which render assurance audit service for support services, and an implementation guideline is issued in the light of knowledge and document taken from those audit companies. For the second aim, a survey study is conducted in Turkey. This survey is conducted on 352 auditors, 56 enterprises, which outsource support services, and 80 personnel, who are at position of manager in enterprises, which render support services. Resultant data is analyzed with SPSS statistics software using definitive statistics, One-way ANOVA, chi-square, factor and logistic regression analyses. Results of analyses showed that assurance report on controls at a service organization is comprised of risk appraisal, risk response control and reporting phases, awareness of relevant parties on assurance engagement is low, but assurance engagement can be put into practice after relevant parties are briefly informed about assurance engagement. Key Words: Assurance Services, Assurance Engagement, ISAE 3402