In future, the buck stops with the audit committee
Audit committee members in general and external auditors, in particular, are the most important gatekeepers to provide attention to financial reporting and financial fraud processes. Each function has a responsibility to foster high-quality of reliable financial reporting and disclosures. Stakeholders are also dependent on and recognise that both groups exercise a significant amount of judgment on a day-to-day basis and are not in the business of second-guessing good faith judgments. Therefore, we have created an Audit Committee Network to provide guidance on the implications of audit regulation and directives, to restore integrity and trust to companies, markets, and the stakeholders.
The EU and related global legislation and mandates on auditor liability, transparency, and advisory and the future role of the audit committee is implemented. Therefore, Copenhagen Compliance UK Ltd® together with Grant Thornton and Pinsent Masons will conduct a full day seminar on the June 8th, 2017 in London.
Long list of oversight responsibilities
The audit committee is also at the cornerstone of the board of director’s duties. Its mandate now extends well beyond the oversight of financial reporting and includes key areas that determine the organisation’s performance, risk management, compliance, accountability, the integrity of quality data, cyber risk, and the effectiveness of internal control over operations. The long list of oversight responsibilities gets more complicated because the amount of time the audit committee members can often commit is the same as before the mandate update.
The restructured central role of the Audit Committee goes beyond enhancing the audit quality and building confidence in the integrity of financial disclosures. The new stewardship role of the audit committee will be critical in creating the right environment for corporate performance including the board’s responsibility to create a platform of the business culture of integrity, respect, accountability and transparency. Audit committees must develop an audit strategy, to address significant audit risks, appropriate independence and effectiveness of the external auditor.
Enforce corporate culture in Governance, Risk Management, Compliance (GRC) and IT-Security processes
When things go wrong in a company, it is often due to lack of discipline, adherence, monitoring and independent assurance of right GRC processes in the organisation. One of the primary reasons when management, the chairman or the audit committee member is forced to say; 'we were not aware' is often due to the undermining of trust in the financial accounts, culture and the Governance, Risk Management, Compliance and IT-Security activities to obtain confidence in the performance. Management tools like the ‘whistle-blower’ function, ‘compliance’ and 'tone-of-the-top' are valuable however in this article we focus on the role and responsibility of the audit committee to avoid a corporate failure
Audit committee members must provide assurance on all financial reporting and financial fraud processes. Each function has a responsibility to foster high-quality, reliable financial reporting. The focus of the seminar on June 8th 2017 in London is to provide updated guidance on how audit committee members can carry out their responsibilities, and how auditors can comply with relevant auditing standards in their audit work, based on the audit reform.
Please reserve the following dates for future Audit Committee Network seminars. September 14th 2017, November 23rd 2017 and February 22nd 2018.
http://www.auditcommittee.solutions/2017/04/02/audit-committee-network/
http://www.auditcommittee.solutions/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/AuditCommitteeNetwork-Brochure.pdf
http://www.auditcommittee.solutions/events/register/
