ISLAMABAD: The govern­ment on Monday appointed chairman and members on the Audit Oversight Board (AOB) to oversee auditors of public-interest companies and ensure adequate audit oversight.

The notification issued by the Ministry of Finance last week said Dr Tariq Hassan, former chairman of the Sec­urities and Exchange Comm­ission of Pakistan (SECP), will be the board’s chairman. Its members include Ahmad Saeed, Muhammad Naeem, Faresa Jafarey, Shahid Ghaffar, Tariq Iqbal Khan and Asif Usman.

The three-year appointments have been recommended by a committee comprising the SECP chairman, Finance Division secretary, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) president.

The AOB has been established under the amendments made in SECP Act, 1997 to regulate the audit profession in the country.

Its functions include the registration and deregistration of audit firms that intend to audit accounts of public-interest companies and carry out oversight and review of the quality assurance board of ICAP.

The AOB will also ensure that the auditing standards adopted by ICAP conform to the international standards issued by International Aud­iting and Assurance Board.

All firms having a satisfactory quality control review rating have to be registered with the AOB. The AOB will also register audit firms on the recommendation of QAB in accordance with the quality control review framework.

The AOB is also authorised to deregister an audit firm based on its work and inspections.

The AOB will also help the SECP/SBP conduct inspections of records of QAB rela­ted to a registered audit firm.

The first chairman of AOB, Dr Hassan, is an attorney practising law and has served as SECP chairman and advi­ser to the finance minister.

Published in Dawn December 27th, 2016