English ICA unable to shed light on audit regulation row
The English ICA was caught on the hop today as a major audit regulation row broke out while council members and officials were at an off-site meeting in Northampton.
A report from the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed more than half of PwC’s 2,700 partners in the US had breached the independence regulations, many of the violations arising from investments or interests in audit clients of the firm.
In the UK regulation would fall to a joint institute body, but according to a spokeswoman, senior officials were uncontactable leaving the English ICA unable to confirm whether it would launch a similar inquiry in the UK.
The Joint Monitoring Unit of the English, Irish and Scots Institutes conducts monitoring of independence requirements of its member accountancy firms under the audit regulations.
When contacted by AccountancyAge.com, an Institute spokeswoman said: ‘We don’t want to comment on the PwC situation.’
According to the SEC report, the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand was at the heart of the failure of so many PwC staff in the US to comply with independence rules.
PwC merger integral to US compliance scandal