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In our jurisdiction, our Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy (BOA) has adopted our own external audit Quality Assurance Review (QAR) Program, but is yet to implement it. Our Securities Exchange Commission, on the other hand, has been working on the revision of its Rules on Financial Statements Reporting that will include, among others, the implementation of its own QAR System of external auditors accredited by the commission, but is yet to be finalized and approved for implementation. Pending the implementation and approval for a QAR Program/System, there is no local regulatory body that currently audits the auditors in this country, which situation may be good or bad, or should I say, may pose both challenges and/or opportunities to our regulators; to companies being audited or the auditees; and to CPA practitioners, whether big firms or small or medium practitioners (SMP).

In the recent years, auditing the auditors has become a global development in the accountancy profession amid news of inappropriate financial reporting or accounting scandals happening around the world. A number of national professional regulators have responded accordingly to these inauspicious events in the accountancy profession and have set up a regulatory body to oversee the conduct of an audit of companies by the auditors [hereinafter, interchangeably referred to as external auditors or Certified Public Accountants (CPA) practitioners] in their respective countries.