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Hong Kong had 21 835 registered professional accountants at year-end.
Of these, 3 242 were certified public accountants (CPAs) or public accountants,
who are in public practice and entitled to perform statutory audits. There
were 1 099 CPA firms and 139 corporate practices registered at year-end.
The Hong Kong Society of Accountants (HKSA) is a
self-regulatory body established under the Professional Accountants Ordinance
with a wide range of responsibilities for registering professional accountants,
maintaining accounting, auditing and ethical standards for the profession
and conducting training programmes and examinations to qualify professional
accountants.
In response to the Secretary for Financial Services
and the Treasury's request in December 2002, the HKSA put forward proposals
to reform the regulatory regime with the opening up of its governing body
(the Council) and the two Disciplinary and Investigation Committees. The
HKSA proposed that the latter two committees would in future comprise
a majority of lay members. Action is in hand to amend the law to take
forward the 'opening up' proposals. The HKSA also proposed the establishment
of an Independent Investigation Board to tackle public interest cases.
The Administration has published a consultation paper on this proposal
in September 2003 and will decide the way forward in due course. |
