The regulator said it “formed the view” that their conduct did not meet the required standards including concerns about compliance with auditing and assurance standards, independence requirements, registration conditions, or for not being a fit and proper person to remain an SMSF auditor.
“SMSF auditors are responsible for auditing over 611,000 SMSFs with total estimated assets of almost $900 billion,” said ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court.
“In this privileged position, they play a key role in upholding the integrity and confidence of the SMSF sector. ASIC will continue to take action where conduct falls short.”
Between 1 October 2023 and 31 December 2023, ASIC disqualified five SMSF auditors, imposed additional conditions on two others, and cancelled the registration of another two.
Stephen Bray, Kerpal Harnam, Terence Murphy, Johann Preller and David Sidhu were disqualified from being SMSF auditors. Their names have been placed on ASIC’s public banned and disqualified register and are not eligible to reapply for registration. Mr Murphy requested ASIC review its disqualification decision which is currently under consideration.
Timothy Davidson and Kylie Wilson had additional conditions imposed on their SMSF auditor registration. Conditions are specific to the auditor and can require undertaking additional professional development, passing the SMSF auditor competency exam, having independent reviews of SMSF audit files and/or audit tools, templates and methodology and notifying their professional accounting association of the additional conditions.
Vincenzo Dissidomino and Vincent Crowe had their SMSF auditor registration cancelled.
Of the nine SMSF auditors mentioned, five were referred to ASIC by the ATO.
