Incorporating NQ magazine
July 2021
A CULTURE OF FEAR AMONG AUDITORS There is a ‘culture of fear’ in audit that prevents junior auditors from speaking out, says a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). The report, ‘Remaking Audit: A plan for culture change and regulatory reform’, claims that long working hours and high-pressure environments both help to discourage junior auditors from raising concerns they might have about the work they are doing. Many of those starting out on their audit careers with the accountancy firms also fear what ‘being difficult’ will do to their careers. The IPPR report says junior auditors need to be actively trained to speak up and raise concerns with the audit senior. The idea is to openly discuss failures. There must also be clear timelines to feed back the outcome of any issues junior staff raise. Shreya Nanda, IPPR economist, said: “Audit firms should openly discuss past cases of audit failure, and routinely analyse their root causes with new joiners. To this day, NASA analyses the root causes of the explosion of the Challenger
www.pqmagazine.com/www.pqjobs.co.uk
Shreya Nada: ‘We need to bring the audit industry into the 21st century’ spacecraft as part of the induction for new staff. To prevent another Carillion, audit firms should learn from NASA, and do just the same. “We need to bring the audit industry into the
21st century by stepping up regulatory oversight and ensuring that, among other much-needed change, the failings of its internal culture are also addressed.” The report’s authors say a complete culture change within the UK’s audit industry is needed to ensure that other crucial reforms fully restore public trust in the system. Without a new approach that encourages challenge to clients and speaking up within the audit firms themselves, there is a real risk that past mistakes will be repeated. Culture change within the industry, including the dominant Big 4 audit firms, should not be treated as an afterthought but should be rigorously prioritised, defined, put into effect and tracked. The IPPR paper, the second in a series of three, comes as the government is considering reforms to the industry, proposed in its recent white paper. IPPR argues that auditors should be set a renewed public purpose of becoming a trusted referee of business so that audit is far Continued on page 4
Technical meltdown at ACCA UK centres ACCA students sitting the summer exams in the UK were hit with huge delays as technical issues swept through exam centres. On day one of the June sitting at least six of the 75 UK centres were affected. ACCA admitted centres in Brighton, Stevenage, Kia Oval (London), Leicester, Glasgow and Ealing had ‘technical issues’. PQ magazine understands there were also problems at Portslade, Hove.
PQ Magazine July 2021
June sitters also talked about frozen screens and software that shut down mid-exam. The chatrooms were busy as students sat in the waiting rooms with no idea when they were starting their exam. Little did they know that they would be waiting eight hours before their exam would be cancelled. As one PQ said: “It’s Monday, so there are problems with the ACCA exams. Is it me or does
this happen every time?” Another sitter suggested that ACCA should run a test day on Sundays before exam week so the systems are properly tested. The problems ran into day two and ACCA revealed 140 students at Ealing and Hammersmith College had their exams cancelled, and they have been offered a refund. However, students have said this is not good enough. Students
believe the ACCA now has the technology in place to offer those affected a remote invigilated exam before September. One angry but articulate student told PQ: “It was a mess, and now I have to wait three months to sit an exam I had paid for and had sacrificed for. Why am I being punished when ACCA could offer something real like a resit?” It is something the ICAEW did when their exams didn’t go as planned. • For more on this turn to page 5
Get Started Today
Learning Resources
Start your studies the same day - 24 hour online access with instant access to tutor support.
Award winning learning resources including printed books, eBooks & e-learning, videos and quizzes.
www.premiertraining.co.uk
