Auditing Financial Instrument Estimates in Uzbekistan’s Communications Sector: An Integrated Risk-Based Methodology

Accounting estimates for financial instruments remain a leading source of audit inspection findings, yet the International Standards on Auditing (ISA) leave the scale of risk assessment and the choice of response to auditor judgement. This study develops an integrated, risk-based methodology for auditing financial instruments in communication-sector joint-stock companies and illustrates it on the 2025 public financial data of Uzbektelecom and Uzbekistan Post. The methodology links an audit-object map built on the national chart of accounts, a likelihood × magnitude inherent-risk score assessed separately from control risk, a score-driven choice of ISA 540 (Revised) responses, a rule for selecting key audit matters, an internal-control matrix and eight audit-quality indicators. Illustrative single-rater scoring placed 27% and 22% of 49 object–assertion cells in the high or significant risk band. At Uzbektelecom the expected credit loss provision of UZS 1,055.5 billion equalled 28 times illustrative performance materiality, while the auditor’s reports reviewed disclosed no estimate-related key audit matter; discounting of vendor financing and refinancing of supplier debt also exceeded overall materiality. A protocol for testing the effect with independent raters, the Mann–Whitney U test and Cohen’s kappa is proposed.