KARACHI, July 18: “Rebuilding Public Confidence” was the theme of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) Board meeting held in Madrid on July 8-10.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP), which is a member of the IFAC circulated on Thursday, the press release issued by the IFAC on the occasion, entitled “IFAC Board takes actions to improve accountability of accountants”.

The ICAP also attached its own footnote to the IFAC’s press release stating that the ICAP had already adopted the IFAC’s Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants with minor modifications as well as most of the International Standards on Auditing. “ICAP also has a Quality Control Review Programme for its practising members,” the ICAP commented.

The New York-based IFAC is the worldwide organization for accountancy profession with 156 professional bodies in 114 countries as its members. They represent more than 2.4 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry and commerce.

The IFAC press release stated that during the Madrid meeting, the Board took action to advance a number of public interest initiatives: It agreed to revise quality control standards for audit engagements and for firms performing such engagements; the board also approved the formal establishment of the Forum of Firms (FoF) for firms that conduct or plan to conduct transnational audits.

Members of the Forum must be willing to participate in international quality assurance and discipline programmes, as well as comply with the IFAC’s International Standards on Auditing and Code of Ethics; additionally, the board also agreed to revise requirement for the IFAC member bodies regarding the establishment and maintenance of quality assurance programmes for firms of practising accountants.

These programmes require regular monitoring of quality control standards such as skills and competence of the firm’s personnel, supervision of personnel, and the acceptance and retention of clients; the board noted the adoption of the major provisions contained in the IFAC’s Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants by the European Union, other non-EU countries, and some accountancy institutes.

It agreed to become more active in encouraging the early adoption of the Code, particularly its independence rules, and to communicate and emphasise the value of Code of Ethics to members in business, especially accountants involved in the preparation of financial statements.

Finally, in an effort to make International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) more widely available to the world’s accountants, thus assisting them in providing high quality work, the Board agreed that all final pronouncements issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board would be available free of charge through IFAC website (www.ifac.org) effective January, 1, 2003.