Practice Monitoring Programme (PMP)

The PMP involves the following steps:

  1. Practice reviewers appointed by the Public Accountants Oversight Committee (PAOC) inspect a selection of a public accountant’s audits to assess if the audits were performed in accordance with the professional standards (i.e. Singapore Standards on Auditing (SSAs) and/or other requirements).

  2. The practice reviewer’s findings are reviewed by the Practice Monitoring Sub-Committee (PMSC), which comprises experienced public accountants and lay-members. The PMSC then reports to the PAOC with recommended outcome and actions, if its view is that the public accountant has failed to observe, maintain or apply the prescribed professional standards1, or that compliance with the professional standards is assessed to be partially satisfactory or not satisfactory2.

  3. The PAOC decides on the review outcome and, if it concludes that the public accountant has failed to observe, maintain or apply the prescribed professional standards1, or that compliance with the professional standards is assessed to be partially satisfactory or not satisfactory2, orders the public accountant to undertake remedial actions, or makes other orders to protect the public interest. Find out more about PMP orders.

Public accountants that do not audit listed companies are generally inspected by practice reviewers employed by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (“ISCA”) and appointed by the PAOC. The reports from these inspections are submitted to the PMSC and PAOC as with all other PMP inspection reports.

1 For the version of the Accountants Act that was in force prior to 1 July 2023, in which the outcome of PMP was either pass or fail
2 For the version of the Accountants Act that is in force from 1 July 2023, in which the categories of outcome of PMP (and their definition) are set out in PMP process.

Quality Control (QC) Reviews

The QC review involves the following steps:

  1. Entity reviewers, appointed by the PAOC (Firm Level)1, carry out quality control standards reviews (“QC review”) on accounting entities (“AEs”) to assess the quality controls of AEs against the Singapore Standards on Quality Management 1 and 2 (“SSQM 1” and “SSQM 2”).

  2. The Entity reviewers submit a report to the Registrar at the conclusion of the QC review. The Registrar submits a report to the PAOC (Firm Level) if the Registrar is of the opinion that the QC review outcome of the AE’s compliance with the quality control standards is either (i) partially satisfactory; or (ii) not satisfactory2.

The PAOC (Firm Level) decides on the review outcome and, if it concludes that the AE’s compliance with the quality control standards is either (i) partially satisfactory; or (ii) not satisfactory, orders the AE to undertake remedial actions or makes other orders to protect the public interest. Find out more about QC review orders.

1 Means the PAOC without any of its members who are public accountants.
2 The categories of outcome of QC review (and their definition) are set out in QC review process.

Audit Regulatory Reports

The Practice Monitoring Programme (PMP) is an important regulatory instrument in promoting audit quality. Audit quality is the cornerstone of market confidence in the reliability of the financial information upon which the market makes capital allocation decisions.

The PMP provides quality assurance to the market through ascertaining whether public accountants have complied with the prescribed auditing standards, methods, procedures and other requirements. This assurance gives users of financial reports increased confidence in audit opinions.

With effect from 1 July 2023, ACRA's inspection powers were expanded to include quality control review on accounting entities, so that audit firms will deliver consistent high audit quality.

The Audit Regulatory Reports are available here.

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