Auditor Independence
Specific auditor independence functions for which the FRC is responsible include:
- monitoring and assessing the nature and overall adequacy of:
- the systems and processes used by Australian auditors to ensure compliance with auditor independence requirements;
- the systems and processes used by professional accounting bodies for planning and performing quality assurance reviews of audit work undertaken by Australian auditors to the extent to which those reviews relate to auditor independence requirements;
- the action that Australian auditors who have been subject to such quality assurance reviews have taken in response to the reports prepared as a result of those reviews;
- the action taken by professional accounting bodies to ensure that Australian auditors who have been subject to such quality assurance reviews respond appropriately to the reports prepared as a result of those reviews; and
- the investigation and disciplinary procedures of professional accounting bodies as those procedures apply to Australian auditors;
- monitoring the overall compliance by companies, registered schemes and disclosing entities with the audit-related disclosure requirements of the Corporations Act and the accounting and auditing standards;
- giving the Minister and the professional accounting bodies reports and advice on the above matters;
- monitoring international developments in auditor independence, assessing the adequacy of the Australian auditor independence requirements in the light of those developments and giving the Minister, and professional accounting bodies, reports and advice on any additional measures needed to enhance the independence of Australian auditors; and
- promoting, and monitoring the adequacy of, the teaching of professional and business ethics by, or on behalf of, professional accounting bodies to the extent to which the teaching of those subjects relates to auditor independence.