ICAI attends major corporate governance initiative

Recent high-profile corporate governance failures and the implications for the international accountancy profession was the theme of a New York seminar attended by representatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI).

The seminar was organised by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).

Among the issues discussed were a global review of corporate governance with particular emphasis on clarifying the place of the audit within that framework.

Other issues that met with delegate approval were the coordination and dissemination of information , the simplification of language in international auditing standards and the development of transparency guidelines by large firms to encourage better understanding of their structure.

Commenting on the meeting, ICAI Chief Executive, Brian Walsh said:"It has been made perfectly clear in recent years that difficulties affecting accounting firms in one region do impact on a global basis.

"That is why international co-ordination of our approach to corporate governance issues is important.

"Fortunately, we in Ireland are some way ahead of many countries in our approach to corporate governance issues," he added.