Nicholas Benbow, director of William Buck Audit (Vic) Pty Ltd, has paid $20,625 to comply with 3 infringement notices issued by ob体育. This is the first time ob体育 has issued an infringement notice under the Corporations Act for an alleged breach of audit rotation issues.
The infringement notices were issued because ob体育 has reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Benbow failed to conduct each of the 3 listed company reviews in accordance with the auditing standards. The auditing standards require auditors to comply with important requirements pertaining to independence.
ob体育 alleges Mr Benbow played a significant role as the lead auditor in the half-year reviews of 3 listed companies in March 2023, when Mr Benbow had already performed the role for each listed company audit for 5 successive years.
ob体育 Commissioner Kate O鈥橰ourke said, 鈥楾he conduct of gatekeepers, including auditors, was announced by Deputy Chair Sarah Court in late 2023 as an area of focus for enforcement in 2024.鈥�
鈥業ndependence is one of the cornerstones of the audit process. Specific audit rotation requirements were introduced 20 years ago to strengthen independence in listed company audits, and the requirements are well known in the industry.鈥�
Payment of an infringement notice is not an admission of guilt or liability.
The specific reasons for ob体育鈥檚 concerns are set out in the infringement notices on the Infringement Notices Register.
Background
Mr Benbow reported the alleged breaches to ob体育 under his requirement in section 311 of the Corporations Act to do so. Regulatory Guide 187 Auditor rotation outlines that we consider that an auditor must notify us of the auditor鈥檚 own contraventions of the Corporations Act, including those relating to a breach of the 5-year audit rotation requirement for listed companies.