A chief audit executive (CAE) is prioritizing four potential engagements for next year's risk-based audit plan. Each engagement is scored on three criteria: risk impact, regulatory concern, and potential cost savings from audit recommendations. Senior management has decided that potential cost savings must be weighted twice as heavily as the other criteria when selecting engagements. The preliminary scoring (before weighting) is shown below, on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high): Engagement 1: Risk impact = 4, Regulatory concern = 3, Cost savings = 2 Engagement 2: Risk impact = 3, Regulatory concern = 2, Cost savings = 5 Engagement 3: Risk impact = 2, Regulatory concern = 5, Cost savings = 4 Engagement 4: Risk impact = 5, Regulatory concern = 1, Cost savings = 4 Using the agreed weighting that cost savings counts twice as much as each other factor, which pair of engagements should the CAE select to maximize the total weighted score under a resource constraint that allows only two engagements?
A. Engagements 1 and 2
B. Engagements 1 and 3
C. Engagements 2 and 4
D. Engagements 3 and 4
Calculate weighted scores: Engagement 1 (11), 2 (15), 3 (15), 4 (14). The highest combined score of 29 comes from Engagements 2 and 4, or 3 and 4. Engagements 3 and 4 balance high regulatory concern and risk impact with strong cost savings.