Auditing Standards

Accounting regulator, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has asked the private and public-sector banks to hire the services of qualified auditors instead of chartered accountants who render ‘compilation engagement’ services.  In a compilation engagement, a chartered accountant uses his accounting expertise as opposed to the auditing expertise to collect, classify and summarize financial [...] Full Article

In order to make books of accounts of public sector entities more transparent, accounting regulator ICAI on Thursday said their foreign branches also should be audited by the CAG. ”Foreign branches of the public sector undertakings are not audited… this is one issue which needs to be looked into by the Comptroller and Auditor General of [...] Full Article

The Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India at its 286th meeting held on March 8, 2009 cleared two more Standards on Auditing (SAs), i.e., Revised SA 500, Audit Evidence and SA 720, The Auditor’s Responsibility in Relation to Other Information in Documents Containing Audited Financial Statements in the direction of enhancing the [...] Full Article

To prevent recurrence of Satyam-like frauds, the ICAI on Monday tightened the auditing standards by introducing new guidelines which will enable auditors interlink information and reports of other stakeholders and evaluate them. The two new standards on auditing, said Atul Kumar Gupta, member of the regional council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), [...] Full Article

The Big Four accounting firms are reputed to have strong process controls. How then could one such firm have failed to detect such a multi-year scam as is getting unravelled in Satyam? “There is a co-relation between the size of audit firms and the size of companies, and hence all large corporate frauds involve big [...] Full Article

ADAG group chairman Anil Ambani has asked market regulator SEBI to ensure confidentiality of commercial and other information while carrying out counter audit of top corporate houses in the wake of a mega financial fraud in Satyam leaving a blot on India Inc’s image. Welcoming Sebi’s initiative on establishing and certifying quality of audit, Ambani [...] Full Article

In what could be a significant deterrent to corporate frauds, the concept of rotation of partners received a green signal from the apex body for chartered accountants, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), and mandates change of partners after seven consecutive years with a listed company. The step, cleared by ICAI, will be operational from April 2009 and is expected to significantly reduce complexity between individual partners in audit firms and their ass.. Full Article