audit Archives

BEIS aims to ‘restore’ investor trust in audit and corporate governance

What makes a good audit?

The corporate audit regime in the UK has long been criticised by some in the industry for lax standards and poor oversight.

Big Four sub-standard in one in five audits

Big Four fail in one in five audits The world’s four biggest accounting firms have been exposed for botching at least 20% of their audits following an inspection by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). In the most recent annual inspections of the Big Four, inspectors discovered Deloitte botched 20% of audits examined, PricewaterhouseCoopers […]

Kobe Steel chief executive steps down after data falsification report published

The chief executive and other senior executives have stepped down from Japanese company Kobe Steel following the publication of the report outlining the findings of an investigation into the data falsification that the company admitted to in October last year. The investigation uncovered 163 more customers since October that had received metal products which did […]

Carillion collapse: Lib Dem leader Cable calls for new inquiry into audit market

The Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, has written to the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) asking the regulator to look again into whether the big four accountants should be broken up. Commenting on Twitter about the firms that dominate the audit market Cable said: “Questions remain over whether there is too much market dominance in too […]

“Delusional” former Carillion directors appear before MPs

The former directors of Carillion who appeared before the joint Work and Pensions and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committees inquiry into the company’s collapse last month were labelled as “delusional” by its co-chairs Frank Field MP and Rachel Reeves MP. Field and Reeves said: “We heard variously that this was the fault of the Bank of England, […]

Carillion: MPs grill FRC chief executive over regulator’s role

UK MPs investigating the collapse of Carillion gave Steve Haddrill, Financial Reporting Council (FRC) chief executive, a grilling over the regulator’s role in recent years. In his evidence to the joint inquiry by the House of Commons’ Work and Pensions and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committees Haddrill confirmed that the FRC had been […]

Carillion collapse – early warning flags ignored?

The collapse of Carillion raises concerns not only about corporate governance at the firm and KPMG’s audit, but also how the directors were able to get changes to their pay passed the vote. Speaking in The Guardian on Saturday (20-Jan-18), British Prime Minister Theresa May signalled her government’s frustration with the slow pace of change: “Boardroom excesses […]

Auditing: US SEC appoints new board members to PCAOB

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has appointed a new chairman and replaced all the members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The SEC appointed William Duhnke as chairman replacing Jim Doty along with J. Robert Brown, Kathleen Hamm, James Kaiser, and Duane DesParte who replaced Steve Harris, Lew Ferguson and Jeanette Franzel. The PCAOB was […]

Steinhoff CEO resigns as accounting irregularities emerge

Markus Jooste, the chief executive of the global retail group, Steinhoff, which owns Poundland, Bensons for Beds and Pep & Co in the UK, has resigned after accounting irregularities were uncovered at the company. The company’s supervisory board has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to conduct an independent investigation into the findings and would update the market […]

Audit Round-up: FRC works to improve audit committee reporting

The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is looking to improve audit committee reporting in respect of company disclosures in annual reports and how auditors report information to audit committees, Melanie McLaren, executive director, audit and actuarial regulation division said in her speech at the regulator’s recent Developments in Audit conference. She said the FRC had launched a pilot project […]