Final answer:
When confronted with a pervasive scope limitation, an auditor must generally issue a disclaimer of opinion, modify the responsibility paragraph to reflect the inability to obtain sufficient evidence, and possibly eliminate sections of that paragraph to prevent misleading users of the financial statements, meaning that all of the aforementioned steps are typically required. The correct option is D.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a pervasive scope limitation exists within an audit, the auditor is faced with a situation where they cannot obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to form an opinion on the financial statements. In such cases, the auditor generally has to take specific actions to address this limitation in their audit report. According to auditing standards, the typical course of action includes:
- Issuing a disclaimer of opinion rather than a qualified opinion because the scope limitation is so significant that the auditor cannot perform enough work to express an opinion on the financial statements as a whole.
- Modifying the auditor's responsibility paragraph to indicate the inability to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence, thereby communicating the reason for not expressing an opinion.
- Eliminating sections of the auditor's responsibility paragraph to avoid implying that other parts of the financial statements might be fairly stated when an overall opinion cannot be expressed.
Therefore, the action that is generally required when a pervasive scope limitation exists includes all of the above-mentioned steps to ensure that the audit report reflects the limitations faced by the auditor and that users of the financial statements are informed of the implications regarding the validity of the financial information presented.