Kamruzzaman Bablu :
The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), the apex regulatory body of capital markets, has embarked on initiatives to bolster the quality and accountability of listed audit firms and auditors.
In a significant move, the regulatory body has established a high-profile committee tasked with formulating policies for the enlistment of auditors and audit firms under BSEC.
Previously, the process of selecting audit firms to audit financial statements for listed companies lacked clear guidelines, often relying on ad-hoc appointments.
To address this, the committee on ‘Guidelines for Enrollment of Audit Firms and Auditors’ has been constituted, with a BSEC Director at the helm. According to a recent directive issued by the BSEC, the committee, comprising members of the regulatory body, will craft policies on this matter.
The committee will be chaired by BSEC Director Abul Kalam, with another director, Tanmoy Kumar Ghosh, serving as the member secretary. Additional Director Md. Al Mamun Mridha and Assistant Director Md. Touhidul Islam Saddam are also named as members.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), the apex body of professional accountants in the country, has 205 audit firms as members. Out of which 45 audit firms are in the running BSEC auditor panel and these firms only audit the financial reports of listed companies.
Earlier, listed companies could choose an audit firm to audit its financial statements because of having no such restrictions in this regard. It is alleged that some audit firms have been accused of manipulating financial reports.
Therefore, since 2016, to improve the quality of these audit firms for BSEC’s listed companies in the stock market, the BSEC has conducted some preliminary tests and created a list of auditors or a panel of auditors.
“So far the audit and auditor firms were under the guidance of Bangladesh Bank.
There was no directive for the registration of these institutions in BSEC. But now the commission is taking an initiative in this regard to registration of auditor institutions,” Mohammad Rezaul Karim, Executive Director and Spokesperson of BSEC, told The New Nation, the circular issued on Saturday.
