The British, or should that be the English, and in particular those living South of the M25, have developed a bit of a reputation in recent years. Well probably many reputations. What we’re thinking of is their inclination to be reticent about speaking their mind on issues which aggravate them. To be more exact, the English have developed […]
Read MoreThe $185 million in civil and criminal payments agreed in a U.S. courtroom last week by the German car maker Daimler have been widely reported. What has been less well covered is the role of the internal audit team that could have prevented the wreck in the first place. In 1997 Germany ratified the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention […]
Read MoreThe UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has warned against companies signing up for “bundled audits” pending completion of a review into the ethical questions surrounding their use. As we reported in August, the downturn has encouraged the development of a new type of audit which blends internal and external audit. Rentokil claims to have achieved a […]
Read MoreThe FRC has published its Fourth Progress Report on the implementation of the MPG recommendations on promoting choice in the UK audit market. In October 2007, the MPG published 15 recommendations intended to allow the audit market to work more efficiently and, in the medium‐to‐long‐term, to have a positive impact on audit choice in the […]
Read MoreThe Auditing Practice Board has published 137 responses to its consultation on audit firms providing non-audit services to listed companies that they audit. A consistent theme in may of the responses is a call for further transparency in disclosures in accounts of listed companies in relation to the non-audit work undertaken by the auditor. While […]
Read MoreAn independent report commissioned by the European Commission has concluded that the differences between US and international audit standards are “negligible”. The study, prepared by the Maastricht Accounting, Auditing and Information Management Research Center (MARC), evaluated the differences between International Standards in Auditing (ISAs) and the standards of the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). ISAs […]
Read MoreThe current economic downturn is encouraging issuers to review their audit arrangements with more pressure to delivery low cost audits says Ernst & Young’s audit chief, John Flaherty. According to reports in Accountancy Age tendering activity is at its highest level since the beginning of the new millennium. ‘We are seeing more driven on the […]
Read MoreThe Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) has announced that it will investigating PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and its staff in relation to its role as auditor to struggling sub-prime lender Cattles Plc. As previously reported on Manifest-I, Cattles has sacked six directors since March, when it discovered a £700m accounting discrepancy at its Welcome Financial Services […]
Read MoreSir David Walker’s review of the governance of UK banks, commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has published 39 recommendations aimed at improving the governance of banks and other big financial institutions (BOFIs). The aim of the report was to find ways of minimising risky behaviour and improving the way companies and shareholder communicate and interact. Many of the […]
Read MoreThe dominance of the Big 4 audit firms continues to be a cause for concern according to a report by the UK’s reporting and governance watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council. The FRC has published the third of its Progress Reports outlining the progress of the 15 recommendations made by the Market Participants Group (MPG) in October 2007 […]
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