Proceedings

to the 8th Directive, as amended, the auditors of public interest entities should
be checked at least once at every three years;
� the small number of specialists in accounting and financial audit, as required by
IFRS, is doubled by a lack of skilled graduates in accounting. Traditionally, the
audit firms staff rotation is very high and it often happens that a graduate, who
has only two years of experience within a member firm from an international
network of audit firms, to be offered a manager position in the financial or
accounting department. Therefore, there is a clear need for the Romanian
universities to demonstrate their ability to produce graduates able to meet new
market requirements;
� the consultation process for issuing the accounting and auditing regulations
could be improved. In Romania, there is a lack in terms of implementing an
effective process of consultation with those who prepare the financial
statements, the auditors and the users of financial statements. It is possible that
the consultation process is not efficient as long as the entities feel that their
opinion does not influence the body that regulates and supervises their activity;
� in Romania, both the CAFR and CECCAR independently translated all the ISA
and the IFAC Code of Ethics in the relative context of their own activities. A
single quality translation of the ISA and the IFAC Code of Ethics for Romania
would reduce the confusion about the source and availability of the applicable
standards and would eliminate the differences of terminology that may exist in
the multiple translations. The multiple translations are a waste of resources and
are a good example for the lack of cooperation between the two professional
bodies. In the following period, a real cooperation between CAFR and
CECCAR is needed in order to avoid the multiple translations and to agree on
the terminology used;
� although the auditors are the subject to some civil, disciplinary, administrative
and criminal sanctions, in Romania legal actions against auditors were not
initiated;
� in general, the surveillance bodies focus more on monitoring the prudential
criteria than on the financial reporting, as follows:
• the focus of the monitoring department of the CSA appears to be more on
the prudential requirements than on the financial reporting. No case of
infringement of the financial reporting requirements was communicated or
published;
• the monitoring unit of the CNVM, which reviews the financial statements of
listed companies, include six people who were prepared, particularly on
IFRS, under a project funded by the European Union, in particular IFRS
(Phare 2005 "The strengthening of the institutional capacity of CNVM”).
The monitoring unit began its activity in May 2008 and, among other duties,
it reviews the consolidated financial statements of the listed companies
prepared according to the approved IFRS. The quick implementation of the
knowledge acquired in the EU project, to ensure an effective review of the
financial statements in accordance with the IFRS, challenged to the newly
established unit. Although the penalties stipulated by the securities law
include the civil liability of those who prepare the financial statements, the
directors and the auditors, no action has been reported in court till now. The
Bucharest Stock Exchange reviews the financial statements of the listed
companies to see if they have the complete documentation, but in the
absence of an overall review of the annual reporting, including the financial
~ 142 ~