Audits
Auditing of Accredited Certificate Providers and Scheme Participants is one of the mechanisms used by IPART to monitor compliance and performance under the Energy Savings Scheme. Audits confirm that the scheme is being implemented as designed and that the creation of energy savings certificates results in genuine reductions in energy consumption.
Audits are performed by a member of the Audit Services Panel, established by IPART.
The law provides IPART with strong auditing and enforcement powers so that:
- Scheme Participants meet their individual energy savings targets
- Accredited Certificate Providers maintain their accreditation and create energy savings certificates in accordance with the Act, Regulation and the ESS Rule.
Audits under the ESS either involve auditing of ACPs, or auditing of Scheme Participants and their Annual Energy Savings Statements.
For both types of audits, auditors must submit a Detailed Scope of Works (DSW) outlining the audit scope and an Audit Deed Poll, and obtain our approval before an audit commences. The DSW must detail the nature and scope of auditing approach, as decided by IPART or the auditor, as appropriate.
Audit Guides
We have prepared Audit Guides to help ACPs, Scheme Participants and auditors understand requirements and processes relating to ESS audits.
Audit Scopes
We have prepared DSW Submission Forms to streamline the submission and approval of DSWs for both types of audits. The DSW Submission Forms are templates which:
- set out standard scope items over which the lead auditor is asked to provide an opinion, and
- identify standard procedures necessary to form an opinion for each of the scope items.
We have also prepared standard audit scopes for each calculation method applicable to audits of ACPs. See Auditing ACPs for more information.
For more information on audit process, see Auditing ACPs or Auditing Scheme Participants.