Review finding and decision
Ong Kian Meng, public-accountant registration 01612, obtained a not satisfactory practice-review outcome. PAOC made the published orders on 4 November 2024. The notice lists these orders among others and does not reproduce the individual audit deficiencies.
Audit restrictions and their exact periods
Audit/reporting required by written law is restricted for 15 months, 19 November 2024–18 February 2026. All PIE audit/reporting is restricted separately for 24 months, 19 November 2024–18 November 2026.
Hot review: engagements, threshold and time
Ten engagements exceeding S$10 million annual turnover require an approved hot reviewer within 12 months, 19 February 2026–18 February 2027. This follows the 15-month restriction, with the PIE restriction initially still running.
Audit-principal consequences
He cannot be an audit principal from 19 November 2024 during the restriction and hot-review orders. An audit principal supervises or oversees a pupil’s qualifying audit experience. The footnote requires at least five years in public practice and absence of an audit-principal prohibition, hot-review, restriction or suspension order.
Definitions and publication version
Public interest entities take their meaning from the professional Code of Conduct and Ethics, not merely entities casually described as large businesses. The not-satisfactory footnote refers to extensive, significant or severe, or repeated non-compliance with relevant standards. Hot review is supervision and mentorship to improve audit quality; the notice refers to Practice Direction 2 of 2024 and permits a suitably qualified current or former public accountant who has passed ACRA’s practice review, subject to approval. The source identifies written law by Interpretation Act 1965 section 2(1), or the relevant company/dormancy classifications by Companies Act sections 4(1) and 205B(2), as applicable to its restriction wording. The source says it was updated on 5 March 2026 to align with Practice Direction 1 of 2024, updated on the same date. That publication update does not change the order periods given above.
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.
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