The Accountants (Quality Assurance Review) Regulations

Section 1. Citation Section These Regulations may be cited as the Accountants (Quality Assurance Review) Regulations.

Section 2. Interpretation Section In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise require— "Act" means the Accountants Act (Cap. 531); “assurance services” means professional audit activities that provide an independent and objective assessment of financial statements or compliance efforts that assure stakeholders including management and staff, the Board, shareholders, investors, regulators and the public that financial or non-financial statements are reasonable, true and fair, and operations are done in accordance with applicable policies and regulations; “Council” has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act; “Continuous Professional Development Program” means the continuous maintenance, development and enhancement of the professional and personal skills, which accountants will require for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout their working lives; “Disciplinary Committee” has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act; “firm” has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act; “Institute” has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Act; “member” means a person who is registered with the Institute in accordance with sections 4 and 24 of the Act; "member in good standing," means a member of the Institute who has attained the requirements of the Institute’s continuous professional development program, paid up the fees and subscriptions and has no pending disciplinary case before the Disciplinary Committee; “non assurance work” means professional accountancy services rendered by a member or a firm whose primary purpose is to ensure compliance, generate recommendations, solutions or ideas to a client to enable them make an informed decision or explore alternatives or conclude a matter based on professional technical expertise and advice or deal with a situation or enhance its competitiveness in the market; "Registration Committee" means the Registration and Quality Assurance Committee established under section 13 of the Act; "reviewer" means a person deployed or engaged under Paragraph 10 of the Third Schedule to these Regulations; and "work pack" means a combination of support documentation to a quality review that reflects work performed by a professional accountant and records inspected at the time of the review by the Institute.

Section 3. Objects and purpose Section monitoring compliance with professional, quality assurance and other standards published by the Council for observance by the members of the Institute;

Section 4. Quality assurance framework Section composite;

Section 5. Quality review procedure Section 5(1) Pursuant to section 13(7) of the Act, members of the Institute shall administer a self-review on adherence to quality assurance in line with the self-review practice monitoring tool set out in the First Schedule. Section 5(2) The Registration Committee shall conduct a pre-review of the quality assignment as set out in the Second Schedule. Section 5(3) The Registration Committee shall conduct quality assurance reviews to assess the procedures, processes and controls established by firms to ensure that professional accountancy work complies with international standards and the firms meet the requirements of applicable laws in line with the procedures set out in the Third Schedule. Section 5(4) The quality assurance reviews undertaken under this regulation shall inform assessments for the issuance of annual licences or the renewal of the licenses by the Registration Committee. Section 5(5) The Registration Committee may revise the First, Second and Third Schedules with the approval of the Cabinet Secretary and gazettement from time to time.

Section 6. Actions to rectify deviations from published standards Section subject to the review carried out under regulation 5(3), identify deficiencies in professional work, ensure follow up and specify remedial actions where necessary;

Section 7. Conduct of investigations by the Registration Committee Section 7(1) Where the Registration Committee deems it appropriate to undertake investigations in the performance of its functions under section 13(3) of the Act, such investigations shall be conducted as set out in the Fourth Schedule. Section 7(2) The Registration Committee may revise the Fourth Schedule with the approval of the Cabinet Secretary and gazettement from time to time.