ICAI welcomes Martin order

THE Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) has welcomed the Information Notice from the Office of the Director for Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) clarifying that auditors will no longer be obliged to report a company or its officers to his office for failure to make an annual return to the Companies Registration Office.

The initial reporting obligation was contained in Section 194(5) of the Companies Act 1990 which obliges auditors to report all indictable offences.

An order signed by the Minister for Enterprise for Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, on the June 3 last excludes a 1963 provision that failure to make a return is an indictable offence from the scope of the 1990 Act from September 1.