Well if you want to be serious...
Honestly the last time I had ISS responsibilities was more that three decades ago. In that instance for a fortune 100 company we had year end audits for our division in six countries at the same time. I had fifty-four internal auditors reporting directly to one of my assistant VP's and we closed out each section one by one in each country before consolidation. We did not have the same IFRS then, nor the computers we have today. So my experience may not be relevant.
However, I remember well that there was a huge amount of back and forth in Spain particularly and a lot of decisions to be made about disclosures prior to the final sign off as you referred to in your post. However, I think the last thing is they cash your check!!
I well remember that the 'nuts-and-bolts' of the audits were often completed five or six weeks before there was final agreement on the verbiage that accompanied everything outside of the specific P&L's. Putting together and signing off on the P&L's was always the easy part, and these were signed off by the appropriate officer in each country involved prior to being consolidated.
I am confident that the 'nuts and bolts' long been finished and reconciled. They are not part of the group of issues that have delayed things. I would not be concerned about that at all.(As an aside, I can remember arguing for three days with a CPA in Andalucia of all places that he could not carry in his current A/R, money due from some who were actually physically already dead and buried!!)
For those interested here is a little bit of the process now used:
International Standards on Auditing deals with audit assertion in details. It is my firm understanding that the issues that are being worked out relate completely to the Presentation and Disclosure portion to the herein referenced reports. Each of the potential JV participants has their own people and opinion on what is to be said when. Then you have the senior management people from Ernst & Young. Top management has been in Vancouver meeting regularly and they are working through these matters. It just takes time. So relax and just wait for the final result and try not to create drama and worry where there need be none. Seriously, I hope this helps, or you can go back to taking your cheap shots at the company or Panama in general. Either way, PTQ will be just fine.
ISA 315 (IDENTIFYING AND ASSESSING THE RISKS OF MATERIAL MISSTATEMENT THROUGH UNDERSTANDING THE ENTITY AND ITS ENVIRONMENT) defines assertion as representations by management, explicit or otherwise, that are embodied in the financial statements, as used by the auditor to consider the different types of potential misstatements that may occur.
ISA 200 deals with components of audit risks that occur on the level of assertion.
In a financial audit, management assertions or financial statement assertions is the set of information that the preparer of financial statements (management) is providing to another party. Bir P (1975) "Financial statements represent a very complex and interrelated set of assertions." At the most aggregate level, the financial statements include broad assertions such as "total liabilities as at 31 December are $50 million", "total revenue for the year is $9 million" and "net income for the year is $3 million".
Auditors decompose these broad assertions into a detailed set of statements referred to as management assertions, separated into three categories:
Transactions (Income Statement):
Occurrence — the transactions actually took place
Completeness — all transactions that should have been recorded have been recorded
Accuracy — the transactions were recorded at the appropriate amounts
Cutoff — the transactions have been recorded in the correct accounting period
Classification — the transactions have been recorded in the proper accounts
Accounts Balances (Balance Sheet):
Existence — assets, liabilities and equity balances exist
Rights and Obligations — the entity holds or controls the rights to its assets and owes obligations to its liabilities
Completeness — all assets, liabilities and equity balances that should have been recorded have been recorded
Valuation and Allocation — assets, liabilities and equity balances are included in the financial statements at appropriate amounts and any resulting valuation or allocation adjustments are appropriately recorded.
Presentation and Disclosure:
Occurrence — the transactions have occurred
Rights and Obligations — the transactions pertained to the entity
Completeness — all disclosures that should have been included in the financial statements have been included
Understandability — financial statements are appropriately presented and described, and information in disclosures are clearly expressed.
Accuracy and Valuation — financial and other information is disclosed fairly and at appropriate amounts.
