April 01, 2002
‘7’
LAW MINISTER RELEASES STATEMENT ON PEER REVIEW ACCOUNTING SYSTEM
The Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley released a Statement on Peer Review Accounting System, which has been evolved by the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to regulate the profession of Chartered Accountants (CAs) at a function here this evening. The Statement is intended to serve as a mechanism to enhance further the quality of professional work of practising Chartered Accountants over a period of time to ensure that their profession continues to serve the society well.
The broad objective of the Peer Review is to ensure that the CAs comply with the technical standards laid down by the ICAI and there is in place a proper system for maintaining the quality of the attestation services work they perform. However, Peer Review is not seeking to re-define the scope and authority of the technical standards specified by the Council of ICAI. It seeks to re-enforce them within the parameters as prescribed. Besides, it details the requirements of what is expected of a CA during the conduct of a Peer Review and a brief description of the Peer Review process.
Speaking on the occasion, the Law Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley congratulated the Council of ICAI for the good work and said that the Peer Review System of accounting would help prevent recurrence of Enron like situation. The Minister said that the new system would protect the initerests of investors.