Auditor Independence When Providing Non-Assurance Services: Findings from Survey of Audit Committee Members

An online survey was sent to Singapore company directors to seek their views on matters concerning auditor independence when providing non-assurance services (NAS) to audit clients; and on certain ISCA recommendations to address NAS independence concerns. 

Currently, there is diversity in the interpretation and application of NAS and fee-related provisions in ISCA’s EP 100 Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics. It is also unclear what information those charged with governance considered relevant when assessing the independence of audit firms.  

Participants were surveyed on the following six areas:

• Scope of entities to be considered for communication of NAS to those charged with governance (“TCWG”)
• Definition of “audit-related services”
• Approach to trigger TCWG’s review and approval on provision of NAS
• TCWG’s elevated approval on provision of NAS
• TCWG’s pre-approval on provision of NAS
• Communication to TCWG and public disclosure of audit fees

The findings of this survey are reported in “Auditor Independence When Providing Non-Assurance Services: Findings from Survey of Audit Committee Members” which was launched at ISCA’s Practitioners Conference on 22 October 2020.