Who receives the requirement
The direction imposes the peer-review requirement on accountants failing practice review for orders issued on or after 1 April 2009. It supersedes Practice Direction 1 of 2009. Cases already receiving hot-review orders are excluded because that is a more stringent review requirement. The direction relies on sections 13(3) and 38(1)(a) of the historical Accountants Act version.
Three engagements and the twelve-month deadline
Appoint one or more peer reviewers for any three statutory audit engagements and complete review within 12 months of the Committee’s order. The accountant determines timing, engagements and reviewers. The process is prospective and included in the order-notification letter; it is designed to help improve identified deficiencies before the revisit.
Revisit timing and renewal
The source generally allows 18 months from the order to address findings before ACRA’s revisit. It explains the need to pass the revisit for renewal under the cited historical framework. Generally 18 months is not an unconditional guarantee that every case receives the identical schedule.
Reviewer suitability and independence
A suitably qualified public accountant or former public accountant who has kept sufficiently current on audit-process changes may review, provided there is no conflict of interest or independence problem. The source describes a list developed with ICPAS and points to Annex B of the peer-review FAQ; it does not reproduce that list in this direction.
Audit responsibility stays with the signer
The signing public accountant remains solely responsible for the audit engagements despite peer review. The reviewer assumes none of the statutory auditor’s responsibility. Peer support and mentoring therefore do not transfer the audit opinion’s legal responsibility.
Version and further materials
Issued on 10 December 2010 and updated as of 1 July 2023, the PDF’s statutory footnote specifies the Act version before 1 July 2023. It refers to the peer-review FAQ for additional details. This article preserves the initiative’s historical scope and does not assert that every later PMP order follows the same renewal wording.
Official source
This article independently explains the substantive contents of the official PDF, including the relevant conditions, procedures and annexes. The linked document remains the authoritative source for its original wording, and later changes should be checked separately.
Read the official PDF ↗