Trust requires quality
The leader of Quality and Risk Management (QRM) has the overall responsibility for the quality in our deliveries and all BDO’s deliveries shall be of a high quality. For the audit business, it is vital that the users of our auditor’s reports and other statements and confirmations believe that they have been issued on an appropriate basis, and that we clearly draw attention to any, in our material misstatement in the accounts or other information on which we issue an opinion.
Steinar Andersen Partner/Leader of QRM i BDO AS
A condition for quality in the deliveries is first and foremost that we have adequate capacity in the form of partners and staff to execute the deliveries, and that they have the relevant competence for each individual engagement. In order to ensure quality in the deliveries, all work is reviewed by at least one other person than the one who has carried out the work. On most engagements, where several staff are involved, there is more than one level of quality control before we issue our audit report. We have established procedures to prevent errors and to ensure that we do not make similar errors again. Our internal quality control and our training and introductory training programmes are important elements in this part of the work. The sections «Competence development» and «Quality in BDO» below have more information on this. NEW AUDIT AND AUDITORS ACT On 1 January 2021, a new Audit and Auditors Act came into effect in Norway that contributes to harmonise the regulation of the audit in Europe. Through the introduction of this act, some distinctively Norwegian regulation were removed and new regulations that our colleagues in other European countries have had for some years were introduced. We have adapted the new regulation by measures like changing our
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TRANSPARENCY REPORT 2021
procedures for assessing independence, acceptance and continuance of clients and considering the non-audit services we deliver to our public-interest clients. The new Audit and Auditors Act requires that we have a system of quality control. The audit firms already have, however, such a system in the standard on quality control (ISQC1). The new act implies that the audit firms must adhere to the regulation on risk management and internal control. As BDO AS is also licensed as an external accounting firm, we have already been subject to this regulation for many years and complied with its requirements. KNOW YOUR CLIENT-TEAM (KYC-TEAM) As a consequence of increasingly more requirements to the acceptance and continuance of clients, BDO has set up a central department to assist with all establishments of client relationships. The KYC team’s services include assessments of independence and other ethical requirements and controls within the money laundering legislation and data protection rules. Even though the KYC team to a large extent makes the work of the client teams easier, the auditor in charge of the engagement still has the overall responsibility for the assessments and the conclusions of them.
