LATEST CANADIAN ASSURANCE STANDARDS BREAK NEW GROUND

The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) recently announced new standards for assurance engagements. The standards were developed in response to growing demand for independent assurance on a wide variety of subject matters. They create a framework for Chartered Accountants (CAs) to provide assurance on a broad range of matters, such as control systems, operations, performance measures, or environmental matters. The CA, for example, may soon be called upon "to give assurance to organizations and individuals conducting business over an electronic network," said Bob Rutherford, FCA, vice president of Studies and Standards with the CICA.

Designed to cover numerous situations, these new standards apply to both attest and direct reporting engagements, to practitioners in both the public and private sectors, and to both audit and review engagements. The new standards reinforce basic concepts, such as knowledge of the subject matter, professional competency, due care and objectivity, the need for planning and supervision, gathering of sufficient and appropriate evidence, and reporting. They also provide additional guidance on the issues of engagement pre-acceptance conditions, using a specialist in an assurance engagement, and the sources and characteristics of suitable criteria.

With these standards, the accountants in Canada seem to have a framework within which to perform new services of the kind suggested by the AICPA Special Committee on Assurance Services.

The CICA, together with the provincial and territorial institutes of chartered accountants, represent a membership of 60,000 professional accountants in Canada and Bermuda. *