Mustaq Ahmed
Country's maiden financial reporting council would develop partnership with accountants to upgrade the auditing practices, which are called to question more often than not.
The just-appointed chairman of the FRC, C. Q. K. Mustaq Ahmed, unveiled the council's line of action to the FE Sunday.
"I want to develop good partnership with the members of the ICAB (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh) so that we could work for the best audit practices in the country," he said.
The finance division issued Sunday a notification making him chief of the FRC. Earlier, a high-powered search committee had recommended his name as the council chairman.
He will join his office on July 02 at the same venue in city's Kakrail area where the country's first and last Ombudsman used to sit.
In his word of advice he said the auditors should work for the country, not for clients.
"Auditors should work for the people of the country, not for the clients," Mr Ahmed said.
He said the auditing is very much sensitive to country's capital market and smooth and steady growth of the economy.
The FRC chairman, who was a former senior secretary at the ministry of home affairs, said his office will soon work for setting standards of auditing in line with the best global practices in this profession.
The FRC, which came into being through a piece of legislation passed in parliament sometime in 2015, will start its formal functioning after the joining of the chairman.
The council is empowered to scrap registration of auditors, apart from other modes of punishment, if they are found guilty of cooking the books in audit reports.
The law of the watchdog body aims at promoting the highest standards among auditors, enhancing credibility of financial reporting and improving the quality of accountancy and audit services.
People familiar with the developments told the FE that the new chairman will start functioning from July 02 next.
A Tk 60 million budget for running the office for the financial year 2018 has also been approved, they said.
However, the first chairman of the FRC will now appoint four executive directors to run its key four divisions along with other three members of the existing search committee.
The divisions are related to standard-setting, financial-reporting monitoring, audit- practice review, and enforcement.
However, the council consists of 12 members. They are chairman, two additional secretaries--one from the ministry of finance and one from the ministry of commerce--one representative from the office of comptroller of auditor general, a deputy governor to be nominated by the central bank, a member from the National Board of Revenue, a commissioner from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, president of the Institute of Charted Accountants of Bangladesh, president of Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, a professor from the department of accounting from any public university and an executive director of the FRC who will also work as member-secretary.
Mr C. Q. K. Mustaq Ahmed was born in Sylhet in 1955. He studied economics at the University of Dhaka.
He served in major positions as senior secretary, the ministry of agriculture (2009-2012), secretary, bridges division, the ministry of road transport and bridges (2008-2009) and secretary at the ministry of liberation war affairs in 2008.
He joined Bangladesh Civil Service (Administration) in January 1981 and retired on July 08, 2015
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