On or about 28 June 2019, the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) has published the enhanced Revised Statement of Auditing Practice (SAP) 2 to help reduce the divergence in practice among reporting auditors when issuing private reports on profit forecasts, it has been revised to include a new section on the guidance on what reporting auditors should comment on their private reports.
SAP 2 (Revised) provides guidance on the reporting auditor’s roles and responsibilities when engaged as a professional in a public offering exercise, and general principles governing engagements relating to public offering documents.
The key enhancements made to SAP 2 are:
- updated reference to Securities and Futures (Offers of Investments) (Securities and Securities-based Derivative Contracts) Regulations 2018 (SFR 2018)
- inserted new section on private report on profit forecast providing guidance on what reporting officers should comment on their private reports. This was done in order to curtail the prevalent divergence in practice while issuing private reports on profit forecast, and
- inserted additional example report 6 in Appendix 1, to provide illustrative guidance through a private report on prospective financial information.
The enhancements will be effective for reports dated on or after 1 October 2019.