Accountancy Profession Act (Cap. 281), article 8

8. (1) The Minister may, on the recommendation of the Board, make regulations not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, to give better effect to any of such provisions and genera lly to regulate the profession of accountants, and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, such regulations may in partic ular include provisions with respect to - (a) the establishment and definition of accounting standards, procedures and generally accepted accounting principles and practice applicable in respect of the preparation of financial statements of entities; Cap. 386. (b) the establishment and definition of auditing standards and generally accepted auditing principles and practice and other duties and practices to be followed by auditors, either generally or in particular fields of activity, including, but not limitedly, the laying down of additional requirements in relation to the content of the audit report referred to in articles 179 and 179A of the Companies Act; (c) the recognition of an approved accountancy body, the conditions for such recognition and the suspension or withdrawal thereof; (d) the work which cannot be performed and the services which cannot be rendered, whether wholly or in part, except by a person holding a warrant or a practising certificate under this Act; (e) the work which cannot be performed and the services which cannot be rendered by persons holding a warrant or a practising certificate under this Act; (f) any matter which is required or is authorised by this Act to be prescribed; (g) the procedure to be followed by the Board in relation to applications for the issue of warrants or practising certificates under article 4; (h) the procedures to be followed in cases of professional misconduct or other disciplinary proceedings; (i) the procedure of the Board; (j) the implementation of the provisions of Directive 2006/43/EC, Directive 2014/56/EU and Regulation (EU) No. 537/2014; Cap. 500. (k) the implementation of the powers, functions and responsibilities attributed to the Board as a competent authority in terms of the Services (Internal Market) Act; 16 CAP. 281.] ACCOUNTANCY PROFESSION (l) the punishments, penalties and other consequences and effects to which a person may become liable or may take place in the event of any contravention or non- compliance with any provision of any regulations or directive issued under or pursuant to this article; so however that no punishment so prescribed may exceed a fine (multa ) of twenty-five thousand euro (€25,000.00), or imprisonment for a term of one year with or without such fine, or in the case of a continuing offence a fine (multa ) of one hundred and twenty euro (€120.00) for each day on which the offence continues, whether or not in addition to the punishment aforesaid; (m) the equivalence criteria of audits of the annual and consolidated financial statements referred to in article 7(6); (n) the general equivalence criteria to be used in assessing the annual and consolidated financial statements referred to in article 7(6); (o) the equivalence referred to in article 7(9); (p) the establishment of general equivalence criteria which are to be used in assessing the public oversight, quality assurance, investigation and sanctions systems of a third country; S.L. 281.01 (q) the adequacy of the third countries referred to in regulation 9 of the Accountancy Profession Regulations; (r) the establishment of general adequacy criteria which are to be used in order to assess whether the competent authorities of third countries may be recognised as adequate to cooperate with the Board on the exchange of audit working papers or other documents held by auditors and audit firms; (s) the establishment of non-binding guidelines on methodology for reporting non-financial information, including non-financial key performance indicators, general and sectoral, with a view to facilitating relevant, useful and comparable disclosure of non- financial information by undertakings. (2) The Board may, with the approval of the Minister, issue directives or guidelines regulating the activity of warrant hol ders, practising certificate holders or firms on the following: (a) the professional conduct of warrant holders, practising certificate holders or firms, code of ethics, standards on internal quality control of audit firms and standards of competency and integrity and independence to be kept by the profession; (b) the confidentiality of information obtained by a warrant holder, practising certificate holder, firm or their employees in connection with work performed or ACCOUNTANCY PROFESSION [CAP. 281. 17 services rendered in connection with the accountancy profession; (c) advertising and publicity by warrant holders, practising certificate holders and firms; (d) obtaining professional work; (e) the manner in which experience for the purposes of article 3(2)( e) or which may be required to obtain practising certificates under article 4(2), and the persons with whom such practice and experience may be undertaken; (f) clients’ accounts and monies held on behalf of clients and third parties; (g) continued professional education; (h) the establishment and operation of a system of quality assurance; (i) the meaning and interpretation of any provision of this Act and any regulations made in terms of subarticle (1); (j) the punishments, penalties and other consequences and effect to which a person may become liable or which may take place in the event of any contravention of, or non-compliance with the provisions of any directive, so however that these may not exceed such parameters as may be set out in the Act; (k) the implementation of the provisions of Directive 2006/43/EC, Directive 2014/56/EU and Regulation (EU) No. 537/2014; Cap. 500. (l) the implementation of the powers, functions and responsibilities attributed to the Board as a competent authority in terms of the Services (Internal Market) Act; (m) the provision of such information as may be required from warrant holders, practising certificate holders and firms by the Board in order to enable it to carry out any of its functions under this Act; (n) the establishment of a system of registration and renewals for warrants and practising certificates; Cap. 386. (o) in exceptional circumstances, the signature(s) required in the audit report mentioned in articles 179 and 179A of the Companies Act need not be disclosed to the public if such disclosure could lead to an imminent and significant threat to the personal security of any person, even though the name(s) of the person(s) involved shall be known to the Board; (p) other sanctioning powers in addition to those referred to in article 14(2); and (q) such other matters as may be prescribed by regulation. (3) Directives and guidelines issued in terms of subarticle (2) 18 CAP. 281.] ACCOUNTANCY PROFESSION shall be published: (a) in the Gazette; or (b) by the Ministry of Finance in a separate publication and the fact of publication thereof shall be notified in the Gazette together with information as to where the said publication may be viewed or copies thereof obtained by the public. (4) Directives and guidelines issued in terms of subarticle (2) shall not become operative before the lapse of one week from th e publication in the Gazette made in terms of subarticle (3), or such later date as may be specified therein. (5) Regulations, directives or guidelines made under any of the provisions of this Act may be made in the English language only . Regulations in relation to the mutual recognition of qualifications. Added by: XVIII. 2002.10. Amended by: XXIII. 2009.33. Cap. 450.