Transparent financial reporting boosts investors’ confidence in capital market
Transparent and high-quality financial reporting will reduce the cost of doing business and enhance investors' confidence in the capital and bond markets, which would ultimately help attract local and foreign investment, analysts said.
They spoke at the virtual members' conference on 'Financial Reporting Act 2015 – Roles and Responsibilities of Professional Accountants' organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) on Sunday.
The auditors should know the Financial Reporting Act (FRA) minutely to provide better professional services, said CQK Mustaq Ahmed, former chairman of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and chief guest of the event.
If the FRC finds someone guilty, before taking any decision, the matter is discussed in the council for making proper judgment, he said.
If someone is penalised, there is an opportunity for the aggrieved person or firm to take remedy in the external appellate court as per the provision of section 54 of FRA, Ahmed said.
The FRC is a council consisting of 11 members with different backgrounds whose responsibility is to discuss the gravity and nature of an offence and to ensure justice to the affected stakeholders, he added.
The government has enacted the FRA for the purpose of professional development of the chartered accountants and to add value to the profession, he said.
"An auditor has enormous power and has a big role at the same time. Through his audit, a company can be destroyed. And again for any mistake an audit firm can be destroyed."
In the global business context, a local company has to survive through stringent competition with a foreign company, said Muhammad Farooq, ICAB president.
Professional accountants look into the matters related to the financial strength of a company, prepare strategic goals by analysing financial data and present them to the stakeholders, he said.
"On the other hand, professional accountants also carry out statutory audit of the financial statement of a company. In these aspects, the role of CAs is very crucial. All the stakeholders and the regulator should play an active role to make the FRA more effective."
Executive directors of FRC stressed the need to prepare a fair audit report. They urged the auditors to prepare quality audit reports.
The conference was largely participated by the members of ICAB. Sabbir Ahmed, vice president and chairman of Technical and Research Committee of ICAB, made the opening remarks while the ICAB president delivered the welcome speech.
Mahbub Ahmed Siddique, director (technical) of ICAB, presented the keynote paper.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) is the national professional accounting body, established for the purpose of regulating the profession of accountants.
ICAB members hold a widely respected professional accounting qualification which supports enterprise, corporate governance and sustainable growth in the business environment.
The association works to promote and regulate high quality financial reporting and auditing, develop and maintain the competence of professional accountants and enhance the reputation of the accounting profession in all sectors of the economy.
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