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News May 2010

 

ACCA/ Successful appeal
 
In our December/January news item, we referred to an ACCA member who had been disciplined by the ACCA over the member’s appearance before the Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus, when he had been reprimanded.
 
The ACCA Disciplinary Committee decided to impose a reprimand, fine, costs and publicity. The member was outraged at the severity of this penalty (greater than that imposed in Cyprus) and appealed.
 
The Appeal Committee has decided that the order of the ACCA’s Disciplinary Committee be set aside in full.
 
 
ACCA / Refusal to adjourn
 
A sole practitioner was subject to an audit monitoring visit in September 2009 (the fifth he had had). The assessor believed that auditing standards had deteriorated since the previous visit of September 2007. In early February 2010, the member was informed that the matter would be referred to the Admissions & Licensing Committee on a date in May 2010.
 
At the end of April 2010, the member sought legal advice. We advised him that there was insufficient time available to prepare the case and that an adjournment should be sought.
 
The chairman decided that there would be no adjournment for the following reasons:-
 
  1. Three of the five visits had been unsatisfactory.
  1. It was eight months since the monitoring visit.
  1. The member had been aware for at least five months that his audit registration was at risk.
  1. The member had provided no further representations in five months.
  1. The member had only recently instructed solicitors/experts, despite being aware of the hearing date for 2½ months.
  1. The next hearing date would not be for a further two months, which was too long a delay.
The member had particularly wanted to instruct an expert to give evidence before the Committee on the quality of his audit work.
 
Moral
 
Don’t leave things so late that you are unprepared if a request for an adjournment is refused.