top stories
Enhancing the reliability of financial reporting in Jamaica
Through a new programme that will enhance the reliability of financial reporting, auditors in Jamaica will be subject to a programme of monitoring to ensure that they comply with international standards, when auditing financial statements.
The Public Accountancy Board of Jamaica (PAB), has reached an agreement with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), and has appointed the latter to implement a programme of practice monitoring, which will involve visits to all auditors, to examine their work.
The practice monitoring programme – which will be undertaken to world-class standards - will enhance the reliability of audit reports and, as a consequence, facilitate inward investment and the growth of capital markets in Jamaica. It will also minimise the risk of claims against audit firms and, most importantly, protect the public interest.
Peter Large, Executive Director – Governance of ACCA, said: “ACCA is delighted to work in partnership with the PAB. We will bring to this programme our monitoring expertise, which we have developed over the last nineteen years as a statutory regulator of auditors in the United Kingdom and Ireland.” He went on to explain why ACCA’s approach to monitoring would work in Jamaica “We have already been appointed by over a dozen other professional bodies in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean to undertake monitoring on their behalf and have adapted our approach to meet national circumstances.”
Two other bodies, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica (ICAJ) and the Institute of Charted Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC), are also parties to this agreement. The agreement is being established under the auspices of ICAC, which has collaborated with ACCA in setting up similar programmes in Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean States. ICAJ is a major stakeholder in this programme, which will enable it to meet the requirements for monitoring set by the International Federation of Accountants, of which it is a member.