SHOT BY BOTH SIDES

摘要

The accounting profession was shaken again in the autumn when the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) referred the statutory audit market to the Competition Commission for investigation. The investigation, which will focus in particular on the dominance of the Big Four accountancy firms, followed hot on the heels of the leaking of the European Commission's draft audit reform paper. The EC paper proposes, among other things, to prevent auditors from performing other types of non-audit work, such as consultancy, for their audit clients. The CC investigation will relate to the UK market whereas the remit of the EC proposals will have EU-wide effect.