Global audit body wants to engage with South Asian countries
The mission in Sri Lanka is to enhance, collaborate and share information to build capabilities of its auditor-members, said the Chairman of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR) Brian A. Hunt in a recent interview with the Business Times in Colombo.
Speaking on the sidelines of an IFIAR meeting last week, he said: “We represent about 52 members of the IFIAR here and in the neighbouring countries. In October this year we want to have an enforcement group and a primary meeting will be held in Ottawa Canada this year.”
He said in April 2017 IFIAR adopted a governance structure and elected 15 members for the Board of Directors from member countries for the first time.
Meanwhile IFIAR has developed a strategic plan to be forwarded to its members for approval at the annual meeting in Ottawa Canada. This year the IFIAR opened up a Secretariat in Tokyo, Japan with five staff. “We went through a process with our members to set up an office in Tokyo and seven countries looked at it to set up an office in Tokyo. However the majority of our members are in the European Union.” He said although IFIAR does not have many members in this part of the region, they want to talk to India, China and the Philippines to join IFIAR. Having a secretariat in Asia will have access for people to join the IFIAR.
Other members of the IFIAR include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore Australia and New Zealand. “But we think that there is an opportunity in this part of the region to join the IFIAR. The only office that we have is in Tokyo although we have 52 members.” Referring to trends in the auditing profession, he said the question that comes up usually was regarding technology. “Although much has not changed during the past 15 years, companies and businesses have changed dramatically. Fifteen years ago we did not have Google and Apple, the technological companies that you have today.
Artificial Intelligence is going to have an impact on the profession on the way you perform the audit.” He said the challenge that firms have in future will be to extract data from clients. Referring to cutting costs, he said many firms are investing heavily on modern technology but one has to make sure their staff does the right thing to extract correct information.
Explaining the subtle intricacies of auditing, Mr. Hunt said most audit firms do a good job. “If they have one client they can do a great job. But why cannot they do it consistently with other portfolios as well,” he asked.
He said setting up of audit committees in firms was essential to mitigate risks involved in auditing. However audit committees function differently in many countries, he said. Meanwhile independent audit regulators across the world convened in Colombo last week to share their expertise during IFIAR’s 12th annual inspection workshop. The 3-day forum was hosted by the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board (SLAASMB). The discussion was attended by over 100 professionals representing audit regulators from 40 countries. IFIAR was established by independent audit regulators from around the world in 2007, to share the knowledge of the audit market environment and practical experience of independent audit regulatory activities and promote collaboration with other international organizations. SLAASMB is Sri Lanka’s independent audit regulator established under Sri Lanka Accounting and Audit Standards Act No 15 of 1995.