Q.4 What will the quality review programme achieve?

A.4 We hope that the programme will achieve the following:

1. It will provide with the necessary information required for educational and supportive service and this will help practitioners to maintain and improve their professional standards
    
2. The programme will help LIA identify delinquent practitioners who need to be struck off the list.
    
3. The programme will also assist LIA in identifying practitioners requiring further training in certain areas of the profession.
    
4. It will demonstrate to all people that our profession is able to self regulate and can ensure that established accounting and auditing standards are being adhered to by our practitioners.
    
5. The programme should help practitioners to have an interest in, and general awareness of, the services and products which LIA has available to assist them in the execution of their professional duties.
    
6. Our practitioners will be subject to reviews comparable with most other major international institutes which have similar programmes to LIA.
    
7. It will help to stop the loss of confidence in the profession by the public, both locally and internationally.
    

Q.5 What is the international opinion of practice review programmes?

A.5 Lesotho is one of the few countries which still do not have some form of a review programme in place for its body of professional accountants performing the attest function

In the United States, every certified public accountant in public practice is required to submit to a peer review every three years. This has been in place for many years and became compulsory in 1988.

In Canada, practice reviews started in Quebec in 1976 and is now operated by all the provinces. In Ireland, practice reviews have been carried out since 1987 and their review programme has met with enormous success. Scotland, New Zealand, England and Wales and Australia commenced their programmes in 1991 on cycles ranging from three to five years.

In March 2004 the IFAC Board approved the Statements of Membership Obligations (SMOs) which were subsequently rectified in November of the same year. SMO 1, Quality Assurance, establishes obligations on IFAC member bodies to establish quality assurance review programmes for their members performing certain audit engagements of financial statements.

The International Standards on Quality Control (ISQC) 1 (as amended), effective from 15 June 2006, Quality Control for Firms that Perform Audits and Reviews of Historical Financial Information, and Other Assurance and Related Service Engagements, give guidance to IFAC member bodies on quality control reviews for firms performing certain audit engagements of financial statements.

Close to home, in South Africa, the Independent Review Board of Auditors (IRBA) was established by statute in 2005, with the mandate to establish a quality control review programme for the SAICA members carrying out attest assignments.

Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya, to mention but a few countries in Africa, are all in the process of establishing review programmes for members of their accountancy bodies carrying out the attest function.