The Closing meeting of a second-party audit was planned for 6 pm with the general manager and the quality manager.
At 6 pm, when the audit team enters the meeting room, only the Quality Manager is present and walting for them.
The dialogue among them is as follows:
Auditor team leader: "Good evening, could you please inform the general manager that we are ready to start with the closing meeting?" Quality manager: "Good evening. I am sorry to inform you that the general manager will not be able to attend the meeting. He will try to participate virtually to make some closing remarks." Auditor team leader: "OK. We identified seven nonconformities - these are the reports. Could you please review them and sign them?" Quality manager: "OK. As you know, I reviewed them after yesterday's meeting and accept of all them, where shall I sign?" General manager (from speakers in the room and addressing the quality manager): "Hold on! Do not sign the two nonconformities related to ABC Bank! I have just checked, and we did not provide any services to ABC Bank during September! You can sign the remaining five nonconformities." How would you proceed with the audit? Select one.

Scenario 1: AL-TAX is a company located in California which provides financial and accounting services.
The company manages the finances of 17 companies and now is seeking to expand their business even more The CEO of AL-TAX, Liam Durham, claims that the company seeks to provide top-notch services to their clients Recently, there were a number of new companies interested in the services provided by AL-TAX.
In order to fulfill the requirements of new clients and further improve quality, Liam discussed with other top management members the idea of implementing a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001.
During the discussion, one of the members of the top management claimed that the size of the company was not large enough to implement a QMS. In addition, another member claimed that a QMS is not applicable for the industry in which AL TAX operates. However, as the majority of the members voted for implementing the QMS. Liam initiated the project.
Initially, Liam hired an experienced consultant to help AL-TAX with the implementation of the QMS. They started by planning and developing processes and methods for the establishment of a QMS based on ISO
9001. Furthermore, they ensured that the quality policy is appropriate to the purpose and context of AL TAX and communicated to all employees. In addition, they also tried to follow a process that enables the company to ensure that its processes are adequately resourced and managed, and that improvement opportunities are determined.
During the implementation process, Liam and the consultant focused on determining the factors that could hinder their processes from achieving the planned results and implemented some preventive actions in order to avoid potential nonconformities Six months after the implementation of the QMS. AL-TAX conducted an internal audit. The results of the internal audit revealed that the QMS was not fulfilling all requirements of ISO 9001. A serious issue was that the QMS was not fulfilling the requirements of clause 5.1.2 Customer focus and had also not ensured clear and open communication channels with suppliers.
Throughout the next three years, the company worked on improving its QMS through the PDCA cycle in the respective areas. To assess the effectiveness of the intended actions while causing minimal disruptions, they tested changes that need to be made on a smaller scale. After taking necessary actions, AL-TAX decided to apply for certification against ISO 9001.
Based on the scenario above, answer the following question:
As stated in scenario 1, AL-TAX tested the effectiveness of the intended actions as part of the QMS improvement through the PDCA cycle. Which stage did it perform in this case?

What must the auditor consider in order to mitigate audit risks and obtain reasonable assurance?

Scenario 6: Davis Clinic (DC) is an American medical center focused on integrated health care. Since its establishment DC was committed to providing qualitative services for its clients, which is the reason why the company decided to implement a quality management system (QMS) based on ISO 9001. After a year of having an active QMS in place, DC applied for a certification audit.
A team of five auditors, from a well-known certification body, was selected to conduct the audit. Eva was appointed as the audit team leader. After three days of auditing, the team gathered to review and examine their findings. They also discussed the audit findings with DC's top management and then drafted the audit conclusions.
In the closing meeting, which was held between the audit team and the top management of DC. Eva presented two nonconformities that were detected during the audit. Eva stated that the company did not retain documented information regarding its outsourced services for an analysis laboratory and regarding the conducted management reviews. During the closing meeting, the audit team required from DCs top management to come up with corrective action plans within two weeks. Although the top management did not agree with the audit findings, the audit team insisted that the auditee must submit corrective actions within the given time frame in order for the audit activities to continue.
Once the action plans were evaluated, the audit team began preparing the audit report. Eva required from the team to provide accurate descriptions of the audit findings and the audit conclusions. The report was then distributed to all the interested parties involved in the audit, including the certification body Based on the report, the certification body together with Eva, as the audit team leader, made the certification decision.
Based on the scenario above, answer the following question:
Why is it important to discuss the audit findings with DC's top management prior to the closing meeting and the submission of the final audit report?

Which two of the following statements related to Stage 1 of an initial certification audit against ISO 9001:
2015 are true?