Description: In a special report on the Laurentian University financial crisis, Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk showed that senior management at the school erred by declining government assistance and heading straight to bankruptcy. Lysyk found that the Laurentian senior management and board of governors relied on external advisors in opting for the bankruptcy route, rather than pursuing financial support from the government and working with its labour unions to resolve difficulties. These various advisors have been paid roughly $30 million. The auditor general summarized things nicely in her press release statement that “one has to question whether paying more than $30-million and counting for external legal and financial advisers would not have been better spent on educating students.”

https://auditor.on.ca/en/content/news/specials_newsreleases/newsrelease_LaurentianU_SR_en.pdf

Date: November 17, 2022

Source:  yahoo.com

 Link: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/bad-decisions-laurentian-university-led-171453338.html

Discussion points:

1) Are you a Laurentian student or do you know anyone attending or working at Laurentian?

2) Do you know anything about the financial health of your university? How understandable are its financial statements?

3) Section 14-10 of Wiley’s Auditing: A Practical Approach discusses assurance engagements other than financial statement attest audits. What type of engagement do you think Bonnie Lysyk’s report on Laurentian University would be categorized as?