Edu-Visor : ICAI opposition to proposal to penalise firms for partners' misconduct unfounded: Parliamentary Panel

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ICAI opposition to proposal to penalise firms for partners' misconduct unfounded: Parliamentary Panel

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has raised concerns over the proposal in the bill to have a non-Chartered Accountant (CA) as the presiding officer of the disciplinary committee. While the intent of the proposed amendments is to bring in more accountability and transparency in the decision-making process, the panel noted that ICAI has opposed the proposal to appoint a non-CA as the presiding officer "on the premise of lack .

A Parliamentary panel on Wednesday termed as "unfounded" chartered accountants' apex body ICAI's opposition to the proposal to penalise firms for repeated misconduct of its partners and also endorsed the changes proposed by the government with respect to the constitution of disciplinary committees.

In its report on 'The Chartered Accountants, the Cost and Works Accountants and the Company Secretaries (Amendment) Bill, 2021', the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance also said that while the autonomy and independence of the professional institutes should not be interfered with unnecessarily, the integrity associated with financial reporting cannot be diminished in any way.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has raised concerns over the proposal in the bill to have a non-Chartered Accountant (CA) as the presiding officer of the disciplinary committee.

While the intent of the proposed amendments is to bring in more accountability and transparency in the decision-making process, the panel noted that ICAI has opposed the proposal to appoint a non-CA as the presiding officer "on the premise of lack of in-depth professional knowledge".

According to the panel, ICAI claims that disciplinary decisions have been taken unanimously and there is no conflict of interest among the members in the current set up of the Board of Discipline (BoD) and the Disciplinary Committee (DC).

"The committee feels that while the autonomy and independence of the professional institutes should not be interfered with unnecessarily, the integrity associated with financial reporting cannot be diminished in any way since it reflects business standards and financial robustness for the entire country," the report said.

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