Accountants move to cement audit changes

A 'tick the box mentality' by auditors is not the right way to assess independence and runs the very real risk that individual circumstances of a potential audit engagement may be ignored, according to Institute of Chartered Accountants superannuation specialist, Liz Westover.

Commenting on recent Government announcements on self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) auditor registration, Westover said although uncertainty still surrounded the processes, the Government's announcement had represented a positive outcome for the accounting and audit industries around SMSF auditor independence.

She said the Institute had been advocating for some time that appropriate standards for audit independence already exist in APES 110, the Code of Ethics for accountants developed by the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board.

Westover pointed out that APES 110 already applied to members of the three professional accounting bodies who currently undertook around 95 per cent of all SMSF audits.

She said these same standards would now be applied across the board for all SMSF auditors.

"Independence is a critical component of all audit engagements," she said. "The same principles of independence are just as applicable to an SMSF audit as they would be for the audit of a listed company. Therefore, the same principles that apply for the broader audit industry should apply to the SMSF industry as well."