Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA Pakistan) in a stakeholders conference held on Tuesday, valued the issuance of Companies Ordinance 2016 which is catering better disclosure requirements specially in the context of prevailing country's dilemma of investing and reaping benefits from off-shore companies.
In general, the Companies Ordinance brought bundle of beneficiary packages for the industry, trade and business in terms of opening companies, ease of doing business and upholding the confidence of investors, speakers remarked. The speakers of the Conference were of the view that measures taken after threadbare deliberations of more than 1.5 years will ensure overall growth of economy in the country.
Independence and autonomy of the audit is very much essential and crucial for the survival and growth of business and economy. It is a general perception that there are challenges faced by the companies with respect to ease and cost of doing business when it comes to single source of auditors for measuring the activities of heavy business investments. The global trend of the audit profession has opened up and in most of the developed countries including UK, Canada and Australia there are more than one accounting bodies who have equal rights for statutory audit.
It was discussed during the conference that orders of the honourable presidency are undoubtedly superior yet in the presence of National Assembly; the bill should have been brought to the Assembly to gain more confidence of lawmakers who are representatives of the nation. The passing of bill through the assembly has been a more popular way in the international spheres. To add more, though SECP is a prestigious and honoured regulator, it is observed that some of the considerations of principal accounting bodies including ICMA Pakistan have been disregarded while finalising the Ordinance.
There can be some inconvenience and deficient transparency by monopolising the Audit Activity, critical for organisation, to a single source and limiting others to a particular set of amount. As per the Auditors' Certificates Rules 1950, audit could be performed by any of the Registered Accountant. As per the Companies Act 1913, a certificate from central government was made mandatory to be the auditor of companies. The Registered Accountant was later substituted with Chartered Accountant in ICAP Ordinance 1961 and amended in Section 144 of Companies Act 1913 was amended accordingly. Keeping this in view, if Management Accountants are given the opportunity, they can boost up the profession by eliminating the monotony, providing people a proficient choice to the existing alternative.
Management Accountants are proving to be the real partners of the industry and the profession of accountancy. Management Accountants are already providing support to the Board of directors, owners and management devising strategies for increasing overall performance of business and growth of international market share. Therefore, in the best interest of the Country and National Economy, the draft shall be reviewed before the final vetting with due consideration of Management Accountants as a parallel audit professional in concluding implication of the bill.-PR