Qualifications
for Executive Committee and Report Acceptance Body Service
Criteria for
Eligibility of a Nominee to Serve on the NEPR Executive Committee
and Peer Review Acceptance Body:
The candidate, who is nominated by the applicable state
society, must:
- Be currently active in public practice as partner or
manager, or at an equivalent supervisory level in
accounting and auditing.
- Be associated with a firm that has received an
unmodified report on its most recently completed system
or engagement peer review. (If the firm’s most recent
peer review was a Report review, the member is not
eligible to participate on the peer review committee.)
- Must have completed a course that meets the team captain
peer reviewer training requirements during the first
year of service and then every three years thereafter.
- Have at least five years of recent experience in the
practice of public accounting in the accounting and
auditing function.
- Possess current knowledge of applicable professional
standards.
- Be a member of the AICPA in good standing (current
active status) licensed to practice as a certified
public accountant with a firm enrolled in the AICPA Peer
Review Program.
- Have completed forty percent (eight hours in any one
year and forty-eight hours every three years) of the
minimum AICPA required CPE in subjects relating to
accounting and auditing.
An individual may not serve if his or her ability to
practice is limited or restricted in any way by a
regulatory, monitoring or enforcement body
and is prohibited from serving as a peer review
committee member if one is a member of any ethics committee
or performing enforcement-related work for a state board of
accountancy or other regulatory agency.
A majority
of the committee members must possess the qualifications required of a
system peer review team captain.
In addition, as NEPR is in the process
of becoming a paperless environment, it is highly recommended that the
candidate be computer literate and have continuous access to the
Internet, as well as his/her own email address.
The appointed board member shall
continue in office for a term of three years or until his or her
successor shall have been appointed and shall have been qualified.
NEPR Executive Committee Member
Responsibilities and Functions
- Oversee the peer reviews
administered and performed.
- Establish procedures for ensuring
that peer reviews are performed in accordance with Standards and
related guidance materials.
- Evaluate whether peer reviews have
been performed in accordance with Standards and related guidance
materials.
- Evaluate whether the report,
letter of comments, if any, and the response thereto are in
accordance with Standards and related guidance materials.
- Determine whether it should
require any remedial or corrective actions in addition to those
described by the reviewed firm in its letter of response to improve
the reviewed firm's quality of practice and/or financial reporting.
- Monitor the corrective actions
implemented o determine compliance by the firm
- Establish an oversight program to
ensure the program is performed in accordance with Standards and
guidance issued by the Peer Review Board. This includes
oversight of the administration of the program and on-site oversight
visits of peer reviews. The AICPA Peer Review Program
Oversight Handbook contains a detailed discussion of the entire
oversight process.
- Review the adequacy of a back up
plan for the peer review program administrator.
- Refer instances of non-cooperation
and disagreements between the committee and review teams or reviewed
firms to the AICPA Peer Review Board.
- Act upon requests from firms for
changes in the timing and year-ends of their reviews.
- Appoint persons to serve on such
committees and task forces as necessary to carry out its functions.
- Recommend to the Executive
Committee (Board of Directors) policies governing the administration
of the peer review program.
- Recommend the development of
educational materials and programs for members of the state CPA
societies under its jurisdiction.
A. Each member
appointed to serve on a committee is obligated to adhere to the
program's confidentiality requirements. A participating state CPA
society should annually request the members of its peer review committee
to sign a statement acknowledging their appointment and the
responsibilities and obligations that are entailed.
B. Each administering
entity should adopt procedures for mailing or sending (i.e. via the
Internet) information to committee members ensuring confidentiality.
These procedures may specify that:
- No materials of a confidential
nature may be faxed between staff and committee members unless
arrangements are made to ensure confidentiality. Some examples
of confidential materials include committee minutes, working papers,
and various letter s and reports that may discuss the status of a
review.
- All confidential materials sent to
committee members will be so marked on the first page of the
document
- Envelopes containing confidential
materials for committee members will be marked "Personal &
Confidential." The committee members should instruct their
staff not to open these materials or the staff will be bound by the
same confidentiality requirements as the committee member.
- All confidential materials that
are made available to committee members in electronic format should
provide for the security system or some other means to ensure that
only committee members will be able to access confidential
information.
- Committee members will file
confidential materials in a secure location from the general office
files. On a quarterly basis these files should be reviewed and
old documents destroyed in a method that ensures confidentiality.
C. A peer review must
be conducted in compliance with the confidentiality requirements set
forth in the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and described in the
Standards.
D. Information
concerning the reviewed firm or any of its clients or personnel,
including the findings of the review that is obtained as a consequence
of the review is confidential. Such information should not be
disclosed by the review team members to anyone not involved in carrying
out the review or administering the program or used in any way not
related to meeting the objectives of the program (see Standards,
Paragraphs 9(8) and 10(9)4).
E. While entities
administering reviews may not make the results of reviews available to
the public, they may disclose on request the following types of
information (see Standards, Paragraph 66(89)5):
1. The firm's name and address
2. The firm's enrollment in the peer review program
3. The date of, and the period covered by the, the firm's last
peer review
4. If applicable, the termination of the firm from the program
F. If the firm is a
member of Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS), a copy of the
report, letter of comments, if any, and the firm's response thereto
should be submitted to the AICPA for placement in the public files of
the AICPA Division for CPA firms.
G. It is the
responsibility of the reviewed firm to take any steps that it deems
necessary to comply with client confidentiality requirements.
|
