IFIAR flags 'persistent deficiencies' in key areas of company audits

THE Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) on Monday raised an alert on "common and persistent deficiencies" relating to fair value measurements, internal control testing and revenue recognition among public company audits.

ACRA referred to the latest global survey of audit inspections by the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR) - of which Singapore is a founding member - which has found recurring and high levels of deficiencies in key areas of public company audits. The results of the third annual survey were released in London on March 3.

"Singapore has maintained a consistently high quality of audit, although some of the deficiencies observed by IFIAR's survey do feature in our own inspection finding," said ACRA's chief executive, Kenneth Yap, in a statement.

"Nevertheless, audit quality is constantly a work-in-progress, and we will continue to take all necessary steps to further raise the quality of audit. One upcoming initiative is to have audit firms share their audit quality indicators as a gauge to assess improvements in audit quality amongst firms in Singapore."

The IFIAR inspection report comprises key findings of significant audit firms, and their inspections of 948 company audits of listed public interest entities, systemically important financial institutions and the overall quality control systems in place within the audit firms.