Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Oct 31, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Oct 31, 2005 |
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eWorld
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IT-enabled Services Corporate - Accountancy No missing the bus Ambar Singh Roy
THE desire for IT-enablement has caught up with the chartered accountant. One who spends his lifetime dealing with and vetting figures, the practising chartered accountant of today finds it imperative to match his professional knowledge with the growing demands of the information technology age. Trends indicate that IT-enablement of auditors is fast gaining ground across the board and efforts are on to blend the domain knowledge of auditors with IT skills. And the direction in this regard, as well as adequate and appropriate support, is being provided by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), an autonomous body of practising chartered accountants. ICAI's roadmap towards IT-enablement — and thereby empowerment — of its members was first unveiled in late-2002 when it introduced a post-qualification course in Information Systems Audit for its members. The 12-day, full-time course is followed by an eligibility test. Only those found eligible are allowed to appear in the finals of the Information Systems Audit Examination, the course content of which has been approved by the Central Government. Successful candidates are awarded a Diploma in Information Systems Audit. Says Sumantra Guha, Chairman of the Eastern Regional Council of ICAI: "With many of our members engaged in statutory and concurrent audit of banks that have their IT systems in place, the drive towards IT-enablement was driven by the demands of the end-users of audit services. It is also desirable that those engaged in concurrent audit of banks have post-qualification knowledge in IT." In fact, for firms that are empanelled as central statutory auditors of banks, it has been made mandatory for at least one partner to be a qualified information systems auditor. This has had its impact on the profession. Today, more than 15,000 of the 1.25 lakh members of ICAI have obtained the Diploma in Information Systems Audit. Besides, for its existing members, ICAI has a post-qualification course on Computer-Assisted Audit Techniques (CAAT). The course provides for 100 hours of hands-on training in IT tools that can be deployed by practising chartered accountants in the course of their day-to-day operations. For aspiring chartered accountants, IT forms part of their academic course content. A Compulsory Computer Training course conducted under the aegis of ICAI ensures that students - who currently number about 2.5 lakh — undergo a minimum of 250 hours of IT training before taking up articleship programmes under practising chartered accountants. With e-filing of returns gaining ground, the ICAI has found it imperative to keep pace with changing times. It feels IT-enablement will help a practising chartered accountant to harness his domain knowledge and core competencies to the optimum level. Business process outsourcing outfits engaged in work such as payroll accounting need professionals who are IT-savvy. Compliance with the requirements of the US' Sarbanes Oxley Act also necessitates IT-enablement. Emerging areas such as cyber frauds (of the financial variety) and forensic auditing require professionals who are in tune with the digital era. "Central empanelments, with the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, for example, and statutory audit of banks are now done online. As such, we want IT to percolate to the grassroots of the auditing profession. We at ICAI are gradually moving away from paper-based activity to online systems. We insist that audit firms which seek empanelment as auditors of banks file their application forms in online mode," says Guha. He adds "all the steps that we have taken are aimed at ensuring that chartered accountants are well-equipped for the digital era and they are empowered to have a major say in the changing domains of finance and commerce." Picture by M. Karunakaran ambar_singhroy @rediffmail.com
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