You are engaged to examine the financial statements of Horizon Incorporated, which has its own computer installation. During the preliminary understanding phase of your study of Horizon’s internal control, you found that Horizon lacked proper separation of the programming and operating functions. As a result, you intensified the evaluation of the internal control surrounding the computer and concluded that the existing compensating general controls provided reasonable assurance that the objectives of internal control were being met.
Required:
a. In a properly functioning IT environment, how is the separation of the programming and operating functions achieved?
b. What are the compensating general controls that you most likely found?