米PCAOBが、PwCの上海と香港事務所や、中国の監査事務所などに計794万ドルの罰金を科したという記事。
米中当局間で合意された監査事務所に対する検査の枠組みに基づく、最初の処分だそうです。
PwCには、研修の際のカンニング行為に対して、重い罰金が課せられたようです。中国の監査事務所は、独立性違反です。
「PwCの上海拠点と香港拠点には計700万ドルの罰金を科した。米国監査カリキュラムに関連する研修試験の解答を不正に共有していたという。山東省拠点の監査法人、山東浩信と関連する個人4人には、計94万ドルの罰金となった。ナスダック上場の顧客企業からの独立性を確保していないのに、独立していると虚偽の記載をした監査報告書を発行したとPCAOBは判断した。」
PCAOBのプレスリリース。
PwCの違反は．．．
The PCAOB sanctioned PwC China(PDF) and PwC Hong Kong(PDF) for violating PCAOB quality control standards related to integrity and personnel management. Both firms failed to detect or prevent extensive, improper answer sharing on tests for mandatory internal training courses. From 2018 until 2020, over 1,000 individuals from PwC Hong Kong, and hundreds of individuals from PwC China, engaged in improper answer sharing – by either providing or receiving access to answers through two unauthorized software applications – in connection with online tests for mandatory internal training courses related to the firms’ U.S. auditing curriculum. The overwhelming majority of the professionals implicated in the answer sharing performed work for the firms’ Assurance practices.
中国のShandong Haoxinという事務所の違反は、独立性違反の他、前任監査人の監査調書ドラフトを不十分な手続きしか行わずにそのままパクったという違反もあるようです。Gridsum Holding Inc.という会社の監査に関わるものです。
The PCAOB sanctioned Haoxin and four of its associated persons(PDF), LIU Kun (“Liu”), MA Yao (“Ma”), SUN Penghuan (“Sun”), and ZHU Dawei (“Zhu”), for violations of the U.S. securities laws and PCAOB rules and standards in connection with the audits of the 2015-2017 financial statements of Gridsum Holding Inc. (“Gridsum”).
Among other things, the PCAOB found that:
- Haoxin violated the U.S. securities laws by issuing an audit report falsely stating that the firm’s audits of the 2015-2017 financial statements of Gridsum had been performed in accordance with PCAOB standards and that Haoxin was independent of Gridsum, when Haoxin knew, or was reckless in not knowing, that its audits did not comply with PCAOB standards and that it was not independent of Gridsum.
- Liu, the engagement partner for the Gridsum audits, and Ma, the engagement quality reviewer, recklessly contributed to the firm’s violations of the U.S. securities laws and PCAOB rules and standards.
- Haoxin, Liu, Ma, Sun, and Zhu violated independence requirements and/or PCAOB auditing, ethics, and/or quality control rules and standards. Among other violations, Haoxin and the engagement team improperly relied on a predecessor auditor’s draft work papers, adopted those draft work papers as their own, and performed limited additional procedures before issuing an unqualified audit opinion on Gridsum’s 2015-2017 financial statements. In addition, Haoxin, Liu, and Ma violated relevant independence requirements by informing Gridsum that they expected to issue an unqualified opinion before Gridsum had actually engaged Haoxin as its external auditor.
- Haoxin and Zhu failed to cooperate with the investigation conducted by the PCAOB Division of Enforcement and Investigations by providing false information.
あずさ監査法人へのPCAOBの処分は、なぜか、日経では取り上げられていないようです。処分は、中国の事務所へのものよりは少し軽かったとはいえ、日本の監査法人ですから、それなりにニュースバリューはあるはずですが．．．。（広告費が効いている？）
