Complaints may take two forms:

• Complaints about those auditors or responsible individuals under the AOA’s oversight; or
• Complaints about the AOA

In both instances, the complaint should be addressed to the Managing Director, and submitted through the Administration and Finance Manager whose contact details can be found here: [AOA contact details].  If the Managing Director is the subject of the complaint, the complaint can be made to the Chairman by writing to the Authority’s office and marking the correspondence for the Chairman’s attention or by emailing the Administration and Finance Manager, whose contact details are above, and requesting that it be forwarded to the Chairman.

We will seek to acknowledge all written complaints that we receive within 7 working days and provide a response within a further 25 working days. 

Complaints about those auditors or responsible individuals under the AOA’s oversight

The AOA will consider and, in its discretion, may investigate complaints that appear to involve a breach of the Auditors Oversight Law or the Rules.    

The Law can be found here: [AOL] and the Rules can be found here: [Rules]

Provided the issues raised fall within our remit we will decide whether:

• the matter will be investigated further;
• it should be included in our normal inspection activity;
• it should be referred to another body; or
• we will take no further action.

All complaints will be treated confidentially.   We will not normally act on anonymous complaints but we will consider them to identify whether they provide support or information relevant to our work.

Complaints about the AOA

The AOA’s definition of a complaint is "an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standards of service, actions or lack of action by the AOA, or its staff, in carrying out its obligations under the Auditors Oversight Law.”

We will consider complaints about the following: 

• how we carry out our legal duties;
• management of the AOA;
• our responsiveness;.
• decisions made us;
• the behaviour of our staff and our subcontractors; or
• how our staff and our subcontractors carry out their work.

We will not consider complaints about matters for which the Rules provide specific processes and remedies.

If you have any concerns or are dissatisfied with any part of our work, you should first give us a chance to deal with your complaint informally.  If you wish to make a formal complaint this can be done in writing (by email or post). We will not normally act on anonymous complaints. However we will review them to identify any patterns of behavior or misconduct. 

If your complaint is found to be justified, we will write to apologise to the people concerned, and if necessary, will consider remedial action. If we conclude that your complaint is not justified, we will write to you to explain why.