On or about 22 October 2020, the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants’ (ISCA) Ethics Committee has set up a working group to to formulate recommended practices that will strengthen auditor independence in relation to the provision of non-assurance services (NAS).
The ISCA invited around 400 audit committee members to share their views about the recommendations and matters impacting auditor independence when offering non-assurance services. This online inaugural survey had a 10% response rate. The ISCA’s Practitioners Conference unveiled the findings of the survey on 22 October 2020.
The ISCA also published an article to outline findings from the above survey report to obtain views of audit committee members on matters concerning auditor independence when providing NAS to audit clients, and how to address NAS independence concerns.
The key findings of the survey are as follows:
- 70% of the respondents agree that auditors must obtain from those charged with governance before the audit firm can be appointed to carry out non-assurance services.
- 92% of the respondents agree that information on non-assurance services provided by the audit firm’s network firms to the audit client’s parent and sister companies is important.
- “Audit-related services” concept is proposed to narrow the scope of non-assurance services.
The ISCA has submitted the key recommendations to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants for consideration.
Source: ISCA [media release], 22 October 2020, accessed 26 October 2020.