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.
René Dufrene is industry solutions general manager for financial services at AT&T Business.
Dominica DeGrandis is director of digital transformation at Tasktop. She teaches technology and business organizations how to optimize workflow across value stream networks. She helps teams reveal mutually critical information using Lean, Kanban and Flow methods. As author of “Making Work Visible - Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow,” DeGrandis helps large organizations improve their capability to visualize workflows and create more business value. She blogs at ddegrandis.com and tasktop.com, and tweets at @dominicad.
Leo D’Acierno has two decades of experience managing and consulting to banks, brokerages and other financial services firms. Most recently, he served as a partner in the financial services practice in the New York office of Bain & Company. Mr. D’Acierno founded the bank consulting and information services firm PriMETRIQ in 2003 and later merged it into financial services specialist Novantas, where he led the distribution and sales practice and helped clients maximize the effectiveness of their investments in branch networks, professional sales forces and electronic channels. Mr. D'Acierno previously served in senior executive roles at TDAmeritrade, the online brokerage firm, and Kinexus, a provider of portfolio aggregation services to private banks and wealth management firms. Mr. D’Acierno began his career at BoozAllen and Hamilton, where he served as a partner in the financial services practice working with global banking, credit card and asset management clients. Mr. D’Acierno holds an A.B. in History and Economics from Harvard University.
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.
