Following are examples of control deficiencies that may represent significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. For each of the following scenarios, indicate whether the deficiency is a significant deficiency or material weakness. Justify your decision.
a. During its assessment of ICFR, the management of Lorenz Corporation and its auditors identified the following control deficiencies that individually represent significant deficiencies:
• Inadequate segregation of duties over certain information system access controls.
• Several instances of transactions that were not properly recorded in subsidiary ledgers. While the transactions that weren’t recorded properly were not material, the gross amount of the transactions of that type totaled up to an amount several times materiality.
• A lack of timely reconciliations of the account balances affected by the improperly recorded transactions.
b. During its assessment of ICFR, management of First Coast BankCorp and its auditors identified the following deficiencies that individually represent significant deficiencies: the design of controls over the estimation of credit losses (a critical accounting estimate); the operating effectiveness of controls for initiating, processing, and reviewing adjustments to the allowance for credit losses; and the operating effectiveness of controls designed to prevent and detect the improper recognition of interest income. In addition, during the past year, First Coast experienced a significant level of growth in the loan balances that were subjected to the controls governing credit loss estimation and revenue recognition, and further growth is expected in the upcoming year.