To deepen the professional relevance of members, the institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has disclosed plans to sign a pact with the United Kingdom Financial Reporting Council (UK FRC) for members to obtain audit qualification rights in the country.
Its President, Dr innocent Okwuosa made this known when he led a delegation on a historic visit to the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The visit was part of activities to mark the 11th ICAN UK International Conference.
To this end, the institute has proposed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between ICAN and UK FRC that will enable ICAN members to obtain audit qualification rights in the UK given that accounting and audit practice have become global.
He noted that when the agreement pulled through, lCAN members could engage in UK audits and learn about the modus operandi of UK FRC, its funding mechanism and supervision of the accounting profession in the UK.
The President further explained the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between ICAEW and ICAN and made a case for UK FRC to allow ICAN members to leverage this MRA to obtain audit qualification rights in the UK.
Receiving the delegation, the Director of Professional Bodies Supervision, UK FRC, Dawn Dickson, highlighted the modus operandi and workings of the UK FRC and how it supervises professional bodies.
She said: “UK FRC focuses only on the audit of listed and public interest companies and their auditors. Any audit firm that is not involved in the audit of listed and public interest companies is not supervised by the UK FRC but its professional body through the delegation agreement, which they have signed with the UK FRC. Such a firm is also not required to register with or pay registration fees to UK FRC.” Nigeria’s FRC requires sole audit practitioners who do not audit listed or public interest companies to register and pay annual registration fees.
Dickson said the UK FRC can grant audit qualification rights to ICAN members after a rigorous evaluation process and hinted that such audit qualification rights have been extended to Australia and New Zealand with South Africa now under process.
He said Nigeria can be given such a right if ICAN can meet all the requirements set by the UK FRC for this. Both parties then agreed that ICAN should submit its application so that the evaluation by the UK FRC can begin.
