India's accountants look for improvements
The work of chartered accountants in India will next year be checked against the standards of their national professional organisation.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has launched a ‘peer review’ of its members, to help ‘firms in their quest for enhancement of the quality of work’.
Its main objective is to ensure that in carrying out professional audit assignments, institute members comply with their organisation’s technical accounting standards.
ICAI president Ashok Chandak said the review would not seek to redefine the scope and authority of the technical standards specified by the institute council, ‘but sought to enforce them’.
A Peer Review Board has been established to oversee the process. It has 11 members, six from the council and one from the Indian government’s Department of Company Affairs, the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the comptroller and auditor general, plus from trade and commerce organisations.