The staff of the American Institute of CPAs, the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board have jointly released guidance on the use of specialists in COVID-19 environment, including some considerations involving the use of specialists when auditing financial statements during the pandemic.
The staff guidance, released Tuesday, aims to help accountants and auditors determine when there might be a need to use the services of a specialist to help them perform specific tasks and other professional activities within their own organizations, as well as when they serve their clients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The publication discusses some of the ethical considerations for accountants to think about when using a specialist, along with some of the circumstances that indicate a need for a specialist when auditing financial statements.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has forced many accountants and auditors to work remotely, as well as curtailed travel to client locations, particularly those located abroad, when travel restrictions remain in place in many countries.
Yogendra (Yogi) leads the company’s efforts in developing and implementing new growth strategies in North and South America. While positioning WNS for continued growth, Yogi also oversees the Growth and Strategy function, and advisor relations in these markets. He is responsible for planning, designing and implementing processes to support business growth by defining customer segments and new markets. Yogi brings with him proven capability in service delivery, transition, operations re-engineering, client management, pre-sales and sales. He began his BPM career in 1999 with GE Capital and has managed operations for GE Australia.
Suhas Sethi is the Head of the Global Insurance Business Unit at WNS. He has close to three decades of experience in global financial services BPM.
He leads a specialized team of 11,000+ domain experts at WNS. Suhas’ service portfolio spans across Life, Pensions, Property & Casualty Insurance and includes end-to-end Business & Digital Services across Underwriting, Policy Maintenance, and Claims. In addition to delivering on the core Insurance back office operational excellence, Suhas’ portfolio includes knowledge intensive areas like customer sales and servicing, actuarial, data analytics, and finance and accounting. Besides the business leadership and P&L accountability, Suhas is also responsible for Enterprise Risk and Process Compliance for the Insurance BU.
Prior to WNS, he has donned leadership roles at Cognizant and GE / Genpact.
Sarah Moloney is a subeditor at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum.
The guidance points out that the pandemic could also pose threats to ethical standards, and accountants may find it challenging with the changing laws and regulations pertaining to COVID-19. They may come under pressure to breach the principles of professional competence, due care and professional behavior. “Those who perform audits of financial statements may face additional challenges as well, including considerations related to auditor independence,” said the document. During the pandemic, accountants also might not have access to the usual resources they have at their offices to ensure competent performance, and they may need to turn to outside specialists to help them perform certain tasks or undertake some engagements.
The publication was developed by the staff of the AICPA under the auspices of a working group formed by the IESBA and national ethics standard setters from Australia, Canada, China, South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S. The working group was chaired by IESBA deputy chair Richard Fleck with the goal of developing implementation support resources to help accountants effectively apply the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) when facing circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. IESBA and IAASB staff also provided their input. The working group plans to develop more COVID-19 guidance in the weeks ahead.
