The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) has taken disciplinary actions against some auditors and CA (Chartered Accountant) firms for professional 'misconducts'.
The council of the ICAB has taken the actins following the recommendations of its Investigation & Disciplinary Committee (IDC), according to ICAB website.
The council has imposed a penalty of Tk 0.2 million on AK Abdul Matin, the managing partner of A Matin & Co, for professional 'misconduct' found in the auditing executed for New Hope Feed Mills for the year ended on June 30, 2010.
According to the IDC, the auditor did not apply appropriate audit procedures to warrant the expression of his audit opinion.
Along with accepting audit appoints with a small fee, the auditor also signed the audited financial statements without ensuring the signature of the company's management.
The ICAB imposed another penalty worth Tk 0.1 million on the partners of the Nurul Azim & Co as they were found guilty of professional misconduct regarding minimum requirements for office premises.
The partners, however, have deposited the penalty amount on receipt of the ICAB report.
A penalty worth Tk 0.1 million has been imposed on M A Quadir Mollah, a partner of Mollah Quadir Yusuf & Co, for continuing public practice as a chartered account without valid certificate for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15.
The name of M Abu Taleb, proprietor of M A Taleb & Co, will be discarded from the list of ICAB's practicing members for not updating his certificate of practice since 2013-14.
The proprietor of the S N Meahji & Co have not updated certificate since 2014-15.
The name of S M Nurul Islam Meahji, who has died very recently, will be removed from the list of practicing members.
S N Meahji & Co will also be removed from the list of CA firms.
Asked about minimum amount of penalty imposed on errant auditors, the ICAB president A F Nesaruddin said the monetary punishment depends on the extent of misconducts.
"A penalty worth Tk 0.2 million is not insufficient if an auditor takes the audit fee of Tk 50,000 only. Besides, any kind of penalty leaves a negative impact on the audit profession of a firm," Mr. Nesaruddin said.
The ICAB president was also asked whether the CA firms conduct audit jobs without updating the certificates of practice.
In his reply, the president said from now on the names of CA firms, which have not updated certificate of practice, will be mentioned in the list of ICAB members.
"As a result, the companies will not approach such type of CA firms," the ICAB president added.
