As the FT notes this morning:
The UK accounting watchdog is to face scrutiny of its approach to managing conflicts of interest and its handling of freedom of information requests in a landmark review of its operations.
This is what a small group of accountants and commentators have been campaigning to achieve for a long time. However, we are not overwhelmed with excietment at the news that:
New details published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on Tuesday confirmed that the review will be led by Legal & General chairman Sir John Kingman, a former Treasury official who joined the FTSE 100 insurer in 2016.
The Establishment is to get its view upheld then. As my old friend Prof Prem Sikka put it to the FT:
The temptation will be to tweak things and reinvent the FRC but that won't do because the FRC is symptomatic of the poor regulatory architecture in the UK where captured and puny regulators are expected to shackle giant businesses whilst being colonised by the very interests that are to be regulated,” said Prem Sikka, an accounting professor at the University of Sheffield. “The FRC also has poor public accountability and does not owe a ‘duty of care' to any stakeholder.”
Prem called for a public inquiry into the FRC led by a retired judge with a panel of assessors. I agree with Prem.
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You do wonder what these people are there for. I was astounded when I read at the weekend that a £500 million pound company (Conviviality) was running some of its accounts on a spread sheet (not all the cells were protected). How can any auditors pass the accounts of such a large company using systems like this?
Chris Hall says:
” How can any auditors pass the accounts of such a large company [as Conviviality] using systems like this?….”
Very easily and very profitably, I suspect. 🙂
Time I went out to do something useful, I’m getting cynical.
Getting????
Is there any of the world’s problems that couldn’t be solved by getting you or one of your mates on the board or committee?
Yes
I know quite a lot of things we’re not expert in
Bill Johnson says:
“Is there any of the world’s problems that couldn’t be solved by getting you or one of your mates on the board or committee?”
You think this man has ‘mates’, Bill Johnson ?
Fortunately he hasn’t because, putting mates on boards and committees has got us into the shitfest we currently live in. But perhaps you haven’t noticed.
Richard, you may enjoy this headline from the South African on-line Daily Maverick:
“South Africa on Tuesday announced it has banned KPMG from auditing its government institutions following a series of scandals involving the international auditor in the country. The decision to terminate KPMG’s contracts is with “immediate effect”, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu’s office said in a statement.”
Thanks
Now on the blog