Malaysia’s Securities Commission audit oversight board bans audit firms

The Securities Commission’s Audit Oversight Board (AOB) has banned audit firm, RSL PLT (RSL) and its partners from auditing for one year and imposed a total fine of RM219,000. The SC said in a statement on Monday RSL was barred from accepting as clients and auditing public interest entities (PIEs) or schedule funds for a period of 12 months, effective Nov 1.

The two partners involved are Lim Lip Chin and Lim Sang Chee. “In addition to the prohibition, the AOB also imposed fines of RM175,000 on RSL and RM44,000 on Lim Lip Chin, ” it said. The SC said the firm and its partners were sanctioned by the AOB for non-compliance with the auditing standards on fundamental and basic audit procedures while auditing a public listed company. “These findings affected key financial statements line items such as investment in associates, property development costs, trade and other receivables, revenue and costs from construction contracts and group consolidation. RSL and the partners subsequently appealed to the SC against the AOB’s decisions. After deliberation, the SC had dismissed the appeal and affirmed the AOB’s decisions, ” the SC said.