The body responsible for supervision of the accounting profession has raised findings related to the systems of quality control in five audit firms.
In relation to two of the businesses, recommendations were made to improve the procedures used for evaluating the performance of the audit partners and how this evaluation impacts their remuneration.
While in the case of three other firms, the Irish Auditing & Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) recommended improvements to the process applied by the company in obtaining reasonable assurance that the firms and their personnel comply with relevant ethical and independence requirements.
IASSA also raised findings around acceptance and continuance and staff evaluation and compensation.
The findings and recommendations are contained in the results of IAASA's inspections of the audit systems of the firms in question.
Its reports also lay out what it found when it examined a sample of 35 audits of public interest entities that had been carried out by the seven firms.
Overall, the reports found that the quality of auditing here remains good.
In 89% of the audits examined last year, the inspections found no or limited concerns.
However, improvements were required in a 11% of audits, IAASA found.
None of the audits found that significant improvements were required.
For the past seven years, IAASA has been carrying out the inspections of the auditing carried out on public-interest entities by firms.
Last year’s inspections assessed policies and processes in place at each of the firms in the areas of compliance with ethical and independence requirements, acceptance and continuance procedures for audit clients and the evaluation and compensation of staff and partners.
