Audit committee manual 'for practitioners by practitioners' launched

ACCA and the Polish Institute of Directors are behind the publication of a new guide for listed companies that gives advice on setting up an audit committee. This follows the decision by the Polish government in 2009 to introduce a legal requirement for the country's publicly-listed companies to establish audit committees.
 
Entitled Audit Committees - First Steps: A Guide for Practitioners, the study was officially launched on 26 January 2011 at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Speaking at the event, chief author Paweł Spiechowicz said: 'This is a guide for practitioners by practitioners. We consulted prominent figures in the Polish financial market, as well as leading auditing firms.

'The project is far from being an exhaustive study. Our intention is to release, in the near future, an extended version, presenting a broader range of experiences from former members of the supervisory boards of publicly-listed companies in Poland.'
The guide comprises two distinct sections:

• The first sets out how an audit committee should operate, featuring a 10-point list of best practice steps to creating a committee, and identifying the key principles that will ensure that it operates effectively.
• The second focuses on the typical tasks assigned to the audit committee, with references to the need for effective processes of risk management and internal control, and necessary cooperation between both internal and external auditors.

'Without competent audit committees selected by the supervisory boards from their qualified members, the market will not reach maturity,' said Andrew S Nartowski, president of the Polish Institute of Directors.
'The authors have shown imagination and courage: imagination by recognising the challenge and the need to establish a culture of having audit committees in the Polish market, and the courage to take on this challenge.'