ICAP humiliating itself

[kamranACA]

Dear Khalid


Did any body say Ghana's institute (if any) is lier? You can do it probably because this does not bring discredit to you. Go ahead.

This is not called ICAP audit certificate, rather it is "Practice Certificate" and is given to ICAP's members either they are ACAs or FCAs. However, an ACA having lesser than 3 years experience is not authorized to train CA students in his own name. There are certain conceptual differences between having a practice certificate and getting registered as a training organization. It may be known to you that being in profession it takes 5 years to an ACA to become FCA.

In Pakistan such certificates are given by ICAP and not by some ministry or other govt department. Every ICAP member was previously given such practice certificate, if applied for in prescribed manner, and if there was nothing discreditable. The requirements for documentation little bit vary for partnership concerns and sole proprietorships. However, now ICAP council is going to impose certain conditions of having audit experience in latest previous jobs for getting such certificate. (I have some reservations with this decision though and there is certainly some basis for having these reservations).

There are other ethical requirements for practicing members which are as per IFAC's code and pronouncements. After giving such certificate, ICAP keeps on monitoring the audit work performed by its members through Quality Assurance Board. Quality control reviews are thoroughly conducted after certain intervals. There are very strict documentation, internal control, and performance conditions and rules. ISQC1 has been fully adopted by ICAP and is applicable from current year. All firms are bound to prepare their audit, policies and practices manuals in the spirit provided by ISQC1 and ethical and professional requirements of ISAs. All such policies and procedures will also be subject to review by quality assurance people of ICAP. These inter-alia provide for internal controls and quality assurance systems, delegation / performance and review methodologies, explicitly defined roles and responsibilities, identification of quality reviewer and others for continuous evaluation and updation of documentation, and procedures etc .

Newly formed firms have to undergo the quality control reviews by ICAP before getting authorization to audit the listed entities. Prior to that, they can only get into small sized engagements. Every year the firms' compliance checklists are filled, evaluated by ICAP and rated accordingly.

However, there was no separate testing or exam to get a practice certificate.

There is a long list of all requirements which are mandatory and without which the firms cannot continue the practice. Whenever any firm loses its ratings as a result of quality review, it cannot audit the listed companies unless it gets a fresh review and re-attain the rating. You can study all such regulations from ICAP's website. This is not so simple to get a certificate and start the practice if we talk in ICAP's perspective. I hope the situation would be similar with other such institutes as well.

The above is the brief of only a few aspects. There are so many other requirements as training organization or practicing firm which one may have to know specifically. Therefore, if you need to know something specific, please let me know.

Regards,


KAMRAN.