The Financial Services Authority (FSA), represented by its Professional Conduct Committee, has issued a decision suspending the Ideal Value Auditing and Financial Consultancy firm from practising accounting and auditing for six months, after inspection and review activities identified several violations of the Law Regulating the Accounting and Auditing Profession, as well as international auditing requirements and standards.

The violations centred on the owner of the firm allowing an individual to work and practise the profession on behalf of the firm without completing the prescribed procedures for formal appointment and obtaining the necessary approvals. The violations also included breaches of auditing requirements, including preparing financial statements and auditing them, failure to document the terms of engagements with clients, failure to document audit work, procedures and results, and failure to determine materiality during the planning and audit implementation stages for the purpose of assessing risks of material misstatement. Other violations included failure to perform the necessary audit procedures to verify the physical existence and condition of material inventory, failure to perform audit procedures on related-party transactions, failure to present the auditor’s opinion in certain audit reports in accordance with the prescribed procedures, and failure to include performance comparisons when disclosing audited financial reports.

The decision stated that shortcomings in audit work affect the sufficiency and appropriateness of the audit evidence on which the professional opinion is based, which in turn affects the reliability of reports issued by the firm and may undermine confidence among users of financial statements. The FSA also emphasised that compliance with the provisions of the law, international auditing standards and professional requirements is fundamental to ensuring the quality of accounting and auditing practices and the reliability of financial reports. It stressed the need for accounting and auditing firms under its supervision to comply with applicable laws, regulations and approved standards, thereby protecting the interests of financial statement users and strengthening confidence in the non-banking financial sector in the Sultanate of Oman.