The Listed Companies (Code of Corporate Governance) Regulations 2017 require every company to appoint as external auditors, a firm which has been given a satisfactory rating under Quality Control Review Program, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and is registered with Audit Oversight Board (AOB) established under Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Act, 1997. An audit firm shall be entitled to be registered with AOB on the recommendation of Quality Assurance Board in accordance with the quality control review framework issued by ICAP
The scope of the QCR Program was further extended by SECP vide its SRO 1044 (I)/2015 dated October 22, 2015 which requires non listed companies of the following categories to appoint a Chartered Accountant firm as its external auditors which holds a satisfactory QCR rating under the QCR program of the Institute, namely;
- Public Interest Company;
- Large Sized Company; and
- Public Interest and Large Sized Companies licensed / formed under Section 42 and Section 43 of the Ordinance.
The SRO also states that all non-listed companies which are required to appoint QCR rated audit firms as their statutory external auditors shall facilitate their statutory external auditors in Quality Control Review of their audit working paper files by authorizing them to make available all the relevant information/ documentation/records including audit working papers to the Quality Assurance Department of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.