Audit committee guide |
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PricewaterhouseCoopers has launched an Audit Committees Best Practice Guide, which is intended to provide audit committees with details of best practice on areas such as audit committee organisation,the role to be played in overseeing internal control processes and financial reporting,managing the internal and external audit relationships and communicating the committee’s activities to the relevant stakeholders. It also includes guidance on the issue of reviewing audit committee effectiveness. |
TThe recent Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act, 2003, requires all Irish public limited companies, whether listed or not, to establish an audit committee. The Act also requires that certain large private Companies either establish an audit committee or set out, in the annual Report, specific reasons for not doing so.
Ronan Murphy, head of assurance and business advisory services at PricewaterhouseCoopers said, ‘New challenges are contributing to the expansion of the traditional role of the audit committee,including the increasing complexity of transactions, accounting standards and regulatory requirements; a questioning of the credibility of the corporate reporting process;and greater public interest in,and concern about,corporate social responsibility and ethics. The aim of this guide is to provide audit committees in Ireland with best practice guidance on matters of corporate governance and financial reporting. I believe this guide is particularly relevant in the light of the recent Irish Companies (Auditing & Accounting) Act and the introduction of the new Combined Code of Corporate Governance in the UK.
The European Commission recently indicated that it would adopt recommendations on the role of independent directors and audit committees. |
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Article appeared in the March 2004 issue.
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