12 January 2005 
 
The strain on the supply of auditors to rural and regional Australia may be eased following ASIC’s approval of a new audit competency standard according to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.  
 
The new standard will give smaller accounting firms that do not specialise in audit a greater opportunity to access audit work as they now have an alternative path to auditor registration.  
 
Professional accountants previously had to meet an hours based regime to become a Registered Company Auditor which placed strain on those working in regional Australia who may have limited audit opportunity.  
 
Produced by The Institute and CPA Australia, the new standard will allow professional accountants who are competent company auditors, but not able to meet the hours based requirements, to apply to become Registered Company Auditors (RCAs).  
 
Auditors will be able to prove their competency by detailing how they have met the necessary audit skills in previous engagements and have them certified by an existing registered company auditor.  
 
The Institute said the new standard balances the needs for maintaining the high degree of competency with the needs of smaller practitioners.  
 
Institute Technical Advisor, Mr Keith Reilly, said the announcement will provide much needed relief for succession planning in public practice firms and will help ensure a supply of auditors to regional Australia.  
 
“The previous regime required small country town auditors to complete the same hours based regime as those working on the top 100 companies which was inefficient and had the potential to cripple the industry in regional Australia,” he said.  
 
“The new standard will hopefully result in more auditors becoming RCAs which will ease the burden on RCAs in regional areas”.  
 
The announcement comes after several years work by the professional bodies with ASIC and the federal government.