REGULATION OF ACCOUNTING FIRMS: EVIDENCE FROM FIJI

Shiro Shivani Devi, Rashika Saroshma Kumar and Sherlin Krishna Raju

Global Journal of Business Research, 2012, vol. 6, issue 1, 91-101

Abstract: Ever since the major corporate collapses of Enron in the United States and HIH Insurance in Australia, the public accounting profession has come under global scrutiny. Both collapses had one thing in common, the auditor firm, Arthur Anderson. Many lessons were learnt from these failures which saw both jurisdictions taking counter-active measures either through enactments of new legislation or establishment of oversight bodies aimed at tightening control over practicing public accountants and auditors. In the Pacific region, developing countries such as Fiji have also experienced corporate calamities. This paper explores the need to regulate chartered accounting (CA) firms in Fiji following three major financial mishaps: the National Bank of Fiji, the Fiji National Provident Fund and the hardware industry. To gather data, we conducted in-depth interviews with the Commerce Commission of Fiji, the South Pacific Stock Exchange, the Fiji Institute of Accountants (FIA) and partners from the top four CA firms in Fiji, namely, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and G. Lal &Co. The results showed that the FIA and the CA partners were pro self-regulation while other interviewees showed strong support for regulation by an independent oversight body.

Keywords: Regulation; chartered accountants; self-regulation; oversight body (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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