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The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in partnership with Grant Thornton organized an exclusive expert roundtable. The prospects for the development of audit in Ukraine were discussed during the meeting
The lead auditors, their clients and auditing services regulators took part in the event. The representatives of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the State Fiscal Service, the National Bank of Ukraine, the Audit Chamber of Ukraine, the World Bank and ACCA in Ukraine, Grant Thornton in Ukraine as well as experts of the lead investment companies were involved in the professional discussion.
The roundtable was thematically divided into two parts (panels)
The first panel was dedicated to the challenges of today and facilitating mechanisms of audit transparency and predictability. The speakers talked about the evolution of society expectations of audit profession, about steps required to reconcile the differences between audit systems in the EU and Ukraine as well as public supervision models and audit in the UK.
Oleg Kantsurov, the representative of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, described the basic steps that would promote the effective implementation of European law in Ukraine concerning professional audit activities. First, the attitude to the audit is necessary to be changed that require rethinking of its destination and mission. Second, to innovate the activities connected with the implementation of the legislation and, the third, to optimize the role of audit market regulator.
Volodymyr Vargich representing the State Fiscal Service opinion told about today’s very important role of audit companies
Thus, the implementation of transfer pricing required the professional consulting services on the definition of controlled transactions.
The representatives of the Auditors' Chamber of Ukraine – Ivan Nesterenko and Oleksandr Boiko – provided the information on the present state of the audit market and emphasized the today’s challenges that the professional audit faced. The Deputy Head of the Auditors' Chamber of Ukraine, “De Visu” Group President, Oleksandr Boiko noted: “Unfortunately, in a difficult economic situation, when the price is the major criterion choosing the auditor, such negative phenomenon as dumping has been spread that led to audit formality and its poor quality”. However, the auditors should adhere to the highest ethical standards. The professional ethics requirements should be applied to the standards, these requirements have to regulate at least their functions concerning the public interests, their honesty and neutrality as well as their professional competence and due diligence.
The second part of the roundtable concerned the prospects of auditing services in Ukraine
In particular, the discussion was about the provision of the predictive information as a new component of audit services, the correlation of price, quality and industry sectors when providing of audit services as well as auditing support for the IPO.
The Investment Banking professionals participated the professional discussion. Particularly, Morgan Stanley representative in Ukraine, Ihor Mitiukov, reported that the demand for audit would grow increasingly. The EU agreement clearly provides for the requirements for transparency, publicity and information openness. The auditors should provide such requirements for their clients. In addition, the importance of business social responsibility and anti-corruption policies within companies would progressively increase.
Oleksandr Chaly, Grant Thornton President in Ukraine summing up the results of the roundtable noted that there is hour of triumph for audit now. There are all the possibilities to change it, but the State, the professional associations and the audit services clients by themselves should put the most efforts for this.
