RSS feedsSome are suggesting that tenders for audits become more public, while others want the details of audit committee members opened up.
The subject was discussed at this month’s International Organisation of Securities Commissions conference, along with other topics including the dominance of the Big Four and issues that are changing the audit landscape.
The question of how to present a statutory audit never seems to go out of fashion. Gerald Russell’s Audit Quality Forum led requests on the subject in a report last year, and Peter Butler, CEO and founder of Governance for Owners, renewed those requests at the conference.
Butler suggested audit reports go a step further towards transparency, so as to reflect the range and skills of audit committee members, the performance review of an audit committee, along with details of meetings they had attended and what they covered during those meetings in the course of their duties.
‘The report should also cover the appointment of auditors, the frequency of tenders, the process of tendering and the engagement letters, as well as contingency plans,’ said Butler.
Audit committee members are not closely scrutinised in terms of their qualifications, although their identities are publicly available. Butler’s view on tendering could ultimately prove more controversial.
In its report from the Market Participants Group, the Financial Reporting Council has proposed that details of tenders become part of mainstream disclosure.
Investors have argued that those details, particularly where banks are concerned, might reveal that companies are institutionally prejudiced against other smaller firms.
Any move to open up that process could reveal issues that the industry does not wish to address.
One key theme of the conference was a feeling from companies that they are poorly treated by the dominance of the Big Four.
Daniel Bouton, CEO of French Banking giant Société Générale, with $90bn (£45.5bn) market capitalisation in 77 countries, explained how his company had grown about 2.4 times in income in the past decade. But the price of audit has gone up at least three times the original price.
He described himself and others like him as victims. ‘As a manager and issuer, I feel trapped by the oligopoly,’ Bouton said.
Bouton believes that anti-concentration rules should apply to the Big Four.
UK regulators have, however, shown little interest in disrupting the UK audit market, despite figures suggesting that the Big Four account for almost £3 in every £4 spent on accountancy in the UK.
