It is with great pleasure that I present this report on the first full year's work of the Professional Oversight Board for Accountancy (POBA) in anticipation of our statutory responsibilities. POBA's activities contribute to the Financial Reporting Council's primary aim of promoting confidence in corporate reporting and governance and thus supporting national and international capital markets.
POBA was established following the Government's review of the regulatory regime for the accountancy profession which reported in January 2003. The review concluded that, whilst the regulatory regime in the UK was amongst the best in the world, the time was ripe to strengthen it further by injecting stronger independent regulation and oversight. Three recommendations in particular have defined our role: that POBA should take responsibility from the DTI for the statutory oversight of audit regulation; that there should be a new Audit Inspection Unit as part of POBA which would take over from the professional bodies responsibility for monitoring the audits of those entities which have the greatest impact on financial and economic stability; and that POBA should take on the wider accountancy remit of our predecessor body, the Review Board of the Accountancy Foundation.
See full Report, in pdf format.
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