The purpose of this white paper is to discuss the evolution of auditing and the history of the traditional audit. This white paper is the second essay in the update to the 1999 CICA and AICPA Research Report on Continuous Auditing. This paper is published by the AICPA Assurance Services Executive Committee's Emerging Assurance Technologies Task Force with the intent of offering insight into the traditional audit approach, how it has evolved, and how it might continue to evolve into the future audit. This paper is also intended to provide an improved understanding of movements that have taken and are taking place relative to technology such that readers might better envision how accountants will continue to be the assurance providers of choice in the evolving real-time global economy. The subject matter outlined in this paper is of interest to AICPA members and those in the accounting profession as a whole. DISCLAIMER: This publication has not been approved, disapproved or otherwise acted upon by any senior technical committees of, and does not represent an official position of, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. It is distributed with the understanding that the contributing authors and editors, and the publisher, are not rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services in this publication. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

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The Middle East is one of the world regions that has frequently suffered from armed conflicts that resulted in mass burials. However, the detection of clandestine graves in such an arid environment by deploying remote sensing payload on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has received little attention. The present study used a UAV equipped with a thermal sensor aimed at narrowing down the search area of possible gravesites in the arid climate of Kuwait. The enclosed research area, which includes both control and experimental mass graves, was imaged for 18 months. The variation in topsoil temperature and soil moisture between the graves and their surroundings was evaluated. The results of the analysis demonstrated the effectiveness of thermal imaging techniques in detecting heat produced from buried sheep carcasses and detecting the change in grave soil moisture for our research environment for 7 and 10 months, respectively.The buried animals significantly influenced the topsoil temperature (p = 0.044), while the height from which the images were captured had an insignificant effect on the measured temperature within the range tested (p = 0.985). Furthermore, there was a negative correlation (−0.359) between grave temperature and the calculated soil moisture. The results from these cost-and time-effective search methods presented in this study confirm their potential for the detection of burial sites in an arid environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating effect on the global economy, and Kuwait had its fair share. This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of banks in Kuwait. A pre-and post-COVID-19 statistical analysis was conducted between the largest conventional and Islamic banks in Kuwait. The correlation coefficient and analysis of variance are conducted at the 5% level of significance and 95% confidence level. Additionally, a comparative approach is adopted to ensure the proper analysis of the effect of COVID-19 on the performance of 10 banks in Kuwait. Findings reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on the profitability of the financial institutions in Kuwait; the COVID-19 pandemic did not have any negative effect on the performance of the stock prices of the banks in Kuwait.

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