Practice Monitoring/Peer Review
Practice Monitoring/Peer Review
Tuesday January 8th, 2013
As the self regulatory body of the accounting profession in the Bahamas, the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA/the Institute), at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on June 27th, 2012 passed a resolution to implement Practice Monitoring/Peer Review by January 1st, 2013. As a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), BICA has an obligation to comply with IFACs Statements of Membership Obligations (SMOs). The SMOs can be found at http://www.ifac.org/publications-resources/statements-membership-obligations-smos-1-7-revised.
The implementation of a robust Practice Monitoring/Peer Review Programme is an important component of the self-regulatory functions of the Institute. The monitoring programme will therefore, ensure that BICA fulfills IFAC’s requirements for its members worldwide to maintain an efficient quality assurance review system as promulgated in its Statement of Membership Obligation No. 1 (SMO 1) Quality Assurance.
What is Practice Monitoring/Peer Review? Practice Monitoring/Peer Review in essence is ‘auditing the auditor.’ It is a review to ensure that audit reports and audit procedures are in compliance with International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and other internationally recognized rules, thereby, ensuring the quality of audits.
Who will be required to undergo Practice Monitoring/Peer Review?
Under the Bahamas Public Accountant’s Act (PAA) 1991 Section 12 subsection (1) ‘no person shall hold himself out as a Public Accountant or engage in public practice unless he is the holder of a valid license.’ Those persons holding themselves out to be ‘Public Accountants’ by definition should have been granted a license by the Institute under Section 13 of the PAA and therefore, have complied with the requirements to engage in public practice. Therefore, Public Accountants in public practice who perform attestation and assurance engagements will represent the pool of practitioners that will appear on the list that will be submitted for practice monitoring/peer review. It is a criminal offense for non-licensees to engage in public practice as outlined in Section 12 subsection (2) of the PAA unless they are permitted to do so in accordance with Section 12 subsection (3) of the PAA.
In this vein, the Institute is requesting that all members and licensees complete a Declaration/Waiver form advising whether they have signed off on any attestation and/or assurance engagements within the past twelve (12) months as the monitoring visits will only encompass reviews of engagements that were finalized within the last year.
The Declaration/Waiver forms may be obtained from the BICA Secretariat bicabah@gmail.com. The completed forms are required to be submitted to the BICA Secretariat no later than January 31st, 2013.
We are encouraging all members and licensees to complete the Declaration/Waiver as those members and licensees in good standing who have not completed and submitted the Declaration/Waiver to the BICA Secretariat by this date will be included on the listing to be submitted for a monitoring visit during this cycle.
For further information, contact: BICA Secretariat 2nd Floor Maritime House, Frederick Street Nassau, Bahamas Tel: (242) 326-6619; Fax: (242) 326-6618 E-mail: bicabah@gmail.com