August 20, 2020: The Audit Oversight Board has removed Qadeer & Company, Chartered Accountants from its register of auditors of public interest companies. The firm had committed multiple violations of the law including failure to rotate audit partner as required by the code of ethics, failure to disclose an audit partner to AOB as well as concealment of some audit engagements in the audit quality control review. The action was taken by AOB after providing an opportunity of being heard to the firm.
Earlier AOB issued a warning to two firms of chartered accountants and cautioned four others. These six firms had concealed reprimands and penalties given by SECP and ICAP to their audit partners in their professional practice.
AOB is the independent regulatory authority that oversees the quality of audit of financial statements of public interest companies that include all listed companies. The stakeholders of these companies include investors, shareholders, lenders, and tax authorities which place their trust in the independent assurance provided by external auditors that the financial statements prepared by the management present a true and fair view of the companies’ financial statements. Only the audit firms registered with AOB are authorized to audit the financial statements of a public interest company.
