THE RULES AND WHO SETS THEM

PUBLIC INTEREST OVERSIGHT BOARD (PIOB)

Established in february 2005, the PIOB overseas IFAC's standard setting activivties in the areas of auditing and assurance, Ethics - including independence - and educations, as well as the IFAC member body compliance program. The PIOB is comprised of representatives nominated by international regulators & institutions.

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF ACCOUNTANTS (IFAC)

The IFAC is the global organisation for the accountancy profession, it was formed in 1977 and is based in Newyork. IFAC has more than 160 members bodies of accountants (including the ACCA), representing 2.5 million accountants from different countaries.

IFAC'S overall mission is to serve the public interest, stregthen the worldwide accountancy profession, and contribute to the development of strong international economies by establishing and promoting adherence to high quality professional standards.

INTERNATIONAL AUDITING & ASSURANCE STANDARD BOARD (IAASB)

The IAASB develop ISA's and international standards on review engagement, which deal with the audit and review of historical financial statements, and international standards on assurance engagements, which deal with assurance engagements, other than the audit and review of historical financial information. They establish standards and provide guidance for auditors and other professional accountants, giving them the tools to cope with the increased and changing demands for reports on financial information, and provide guidance in specialized areas.

In addition, the IAASB develops quality control standards for firms and engagement teams in specialized areas.

DUE PROCESS OF STANDARD SETTING:-

1. RESEARCH IAASB members conduct a research for determining issue facing the auditing world, including the need to revise or to introduce auditing standards for the betterment of auditing profession.
2. TRANSPARENT DEBATE Once the IAASB has identified issues to work upon, the members hold a transparent debate on each of these issues, This will help the IAASB to get a consensus opinion on how to tackle the issue. The revision necessary in a current ISA, or a new ISA to address the problem.
3. EXPOSURE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT The consensus of IAASB takes form of an exposure draft ( a sort of a discussion paper ) which is uploaded on the IAASB website and circulated to all Recognised supervisory bodies for further opinion and comments.
4. COMMENTS RECIEVED OVER EXPOSURE The comments recieved over exposure draft are looked upon by the IAASB members, so to incorporate them as part of the discussion paper. The process of circulating exposure draft recieving comments is a time consuming process.
5. AFFIRMATIVE APPROVAL Once the comments have been incorporated in the exposure draft and have been agreed upon among IAASB members, they take  form of a new ISA or a revised ISA, which is then approved for implementation.

WHO MAY ACT AS AUDITOR ?
To be eligible to act as auditor, a person must be:

• A member of a Recognised Supervisory Body (RSB)
• Allowed by the rules of that body to be an auditor or
• Someone directly authorised by the state.

Indivisuals who are authorised to conduct audit work may be:

Sole practioners, partners in a partnership, members of an LLP, directors of an audit company.