Who is responsible for assessing whether company auditors meet the required competency standards for registration?
Relevant to ACCA Qualification Paper P7 Show The syllabus for Paper P7, Advanced Audit and Assurance includes Professional Appointments (syllabus reference C4). The learning outcomes include the explanation of matters that should be considered and procedures that should be followed by a firm before accepting a new client, a new engagement for an existing client, or agreeing the terms of any new engagement. The engagement may be an audit, or it may be a non-audit or assurance engagement. Acceptance decisions are crucially important, because new clients and/or engagements can pose threats to objectivity, or create risk exposure to the firm, which must be carefully evaluated. One of the current issues being debated in the profession is whether there should be an outright ban on the provision of non-audit services to audit clients. In addition, new International Standard on Auditing (ISA) requirements compel the firm to establish whether preconditions for an audit are present when faced with a potential new audit engagement. All of these factors mean that acceptance decisions must be taken with care.
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