Indictable Offences Reported to the CEA

Indictable Offences Reported to the CEA

by | Oct 29, 2024 | Blog, News

The 2023 annual report of the Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA at www.cea.gov.ie) was published in June 2024, covering the 18 month period from the commencement of the office in July 2022 until 31 December 2023.

During 2022/2023 the CEA received 239 indictable offence reports from companies’ auditors in Republic of Ireland. The nature of the indictable offence reports received by the CEA was quite varied as follows:

  • Directors loan breach
  • Unqualified auditor
  • Inadequate accounting records
  • Group accounting standards section 294
  • Accounting standards section 291
  • False statements in returns
  • Approval of financial statements.

Breaches of Section 291 of the Companies Act 2014 had the biggest single concentration of reports which were to do with accounting standards breaches in relation to the preparation and presentation of financial statements in accordance with Irish GAAP and company law.

Indictable offence reports were filed by auditors from the following types of firms:

Firm Number %
Big 4 189 79
Mid-Tier 17 7
Smaller firms 33 14
Total 239 100

 

The CEA commented in its report that (our bold text inserted) ‘one significant contributory factor in the context of auditor reporting is a change of auditor. Specifically, it is not unusual, where there has been a change in statutory auditor for a new auditor, having taken a different interpretation of an accounting treatment to their predecessor, to take the view that the submission of a report is necessary’.

During 2022/2023, the sectors with the greatest volume of reports were:

  • the aircraft leasing sector, followed by
  • the investment and technology sectors

For more on engagement and representation letter templates and a variety of CPD webinars on money laundering and other accounting/audit related topics, please go to our website for:

ISQM TOOLKIT, or if you prefer to chat through the different audit risks and potential appropriate responses presented by this new standard. We typically tailor ISQM training and brainstorming sessions to suit your firm’s unique requirements.  Please contact John McCarthy FCA by email at john@jmcc.ie.

Scam Targets ACCA Members

Scam Targets ACCA Members

by | Oct 22, 2024 | Blog, News

As first reported by Business & Accountancy Daily, scammers are targeting ACCA members in the UK and Ireland, asking members for immediate payment of membership fees in order to renew their practicing certificates and licenses.

The scammers are taking advantage of a very busy period for accountants, especially in Ireland, when more of their concentration is on their clients’ Income Tax and company CRO returns.

Aidan Clifford Advisory Services Manager Ireland at ACCA Ireland said “this one was poorly executed, but it serves to warn people that the next one will be executed better and to be wary. It was circulated in the UK first and then in the Republic of Ireland.

As Aidan said, “there were several give-away signs in the message that it was a fake.

  1. The e-mail “from” field is not an ACCA address.
  2. The physical address in the message for ACCA is not a real address. Queen Street is in Glasgow and not in Dublin.
  3. The named ACCA staff person is not a real ACCA employee; and
  4. the ACCA logo was wrong.”

“Accountants in public practice will always have public contact information available and will therefore be subject to more frequent phishing. They just need to remain more vigilant”, he said.

We would advise members of the professional accountancy and tax bodies, Chartered Accountants Ireland and the Irish Tax Institute, to be extra vigilant for this and similar scams in the run-up to the New Year when many membership subscriptions fall due for renewal.

For additional guidance, technical documents and CPD on money laundering and other accounting/audit related topics, please go to our website for:

Please go to our website for: