Annual Report 2016

Enforcement and court rulings | FAOA 2016
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Enforcement and court rulings
Introduction
In the year under review the FAOA
made its enforcement activities more
transparent (see also goal 7 of the
FAOA strategic goals 2016–19): First,
since 1 January 2016 it has published
all legally-binding court rulings,
whether in its favour or otherwise, on
its homepage (see new tab «Enforcement»).
Only legally-binding rulings
are published to avoid premature
conclusions being drawn from open
proceedings. Secondly, the FAOA
published its Enforcement Policy on
30 December 2016. The publication
provides the audit profession and
other interested parties with greater
transparency as to the principles by
which it carries out enforcement.
Particular focus is placed below on proceedings
relating to pension scheme
audits. The FAOA sees the need for
regulatory action here (see below and
remarks above within «Regulatory
developments» – «Current projects» –
«Expert mission on required legislative
amendments to audit law» and within
«Postulate Ettlin»).
Court rulings
In 2016 the Federal Administrative
Court (FAC) and the Federal Supreme
Court (FSC) again addressed FAOA
orders. A complete list of all rulings
made in the year under review is given
in Appendix 6. New or significant
deliberations from these rulings are
noted below.
FAOA competence
Although individuals are licensed
for an unlimited period, in return
they must continually fulfil licensing
conditions. Against this background,
the FSC ruled that the FAOA must
follow-up on information that might
cause compliance with the licensing
conditions to be questioned, and also
withdraw the licence if necessary. In
the court’s view, it therefore follows
that information conveyed to the
FAOA by third parties (Whistleblowing)
must also be considered if this
suggests possible violations of standards
by a licence holder. An explicit
legal basis for this is unnecessary 51 .
Enforcement
In the year under review a total of five
licence applications were rejected (prior
year: twelve). Eight individuals withdrew
their applications or waived their
licences during ongoing proceedings
(prior year: three). Three applications
were not proceeded with due to incomplete
documentation (prior year:
two). In addition, 11 licence withdrawals
were imposed (prior year: 17) and
seven reprimands issued (prior year:
34). As expected (see Activity Report
2015), significantly fewer reprimands
were issued. Three offences were also
reported to the prosecuting authorities
(prior year two).
51 FSC Ruling No. 2C_1026/2015 of 18 July
2016, E. consid. 2.2. see also FAC Ruling
No. B-2626/2015 of 19 January 2016, E.
1.5.4.