IESBA consultation joint submission by ACCA and CANZ

A joint submission by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants on IESBA's exposure draft issued for public consultation.

Proposed application material relating to professional scepticism and professional judgement

An exposure draft issued for public consultation by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) 

ACCA and CA ANZ welcome the opportunity to comment on the proposals, and we welcome the direction of the project, which seeks to determine a relationship between compliance with the fundamental principles and the exercise of professional scepticism.

The exercise of professional scepticism is required by International Standards on Auditing, and defined in ISA 200.1 We would not seek to amend that definition, but would welcome measures to assist professional accountants to exercise professional scepticism effectively. Our view is that application guidance should, wherever possible, include 'real-world' examples to assist practitioners in applying the concepts.

Our detailed comments can be found in the attached document. 

Please note our comments include reference to ACCA’s research report Banishing bias? Audit, objectivity and the value of professional scepticism.