Auditor's Signature

Requirement to sign and date auditors’ reports from 1 January 2011

CRO wishes to advise companies and presenters that as and from 1 January 2011, CRO will be strictly enforcing the statutory requirement that all auditors’ reports must be signed and dated.

In respect of filings received by CRO on or after 1 January, an auditor's report which does not comply with the requirement to be signed and dated will be returned to the presenter for correction in accordance with Section 249A of the 1990 Companies Act.

The legal requirements in relation to the signing and dating of auditors’ reports are set out below:

Financial statements for financial years commencing BEFORE 20 May 2010:

In accordance with Section 193(4)(D) of the 1990 Act,

· the auditors’ report must be signed and dated by the statutory auditors.

The signature block at the bottom of an auditors’ report in respect of a financial statement for financial year commencing before 20 May 2010 would look like the following: (illustrative only)

Where the auditor is an individual: Where the auditor is an audit firm:
+ usual signature of individual + + Handwritten name of firm +
Typed name of individual as it appears on the Public Register Typed name of Audit Firm as it appears on the Public Register
Address (optional) Address (optional)
Date Date

Financial statements for financial years commencing ON or AFTER 20 May 2010:

In accordance with Regulation 57 of the European Communities Regulations 2010 (see full text in Appendix), the auditors’ report shall

  • state the name of the auditor,
  • be dated, and
  • be signed

- where the auditor is a statutory auditor (a natural person), the report shall be signed by that person, or, where the auditor is a statutory audit firm, the report shall be signed by

§ the statutory auditor (or, where more than one, each statutory auditor) designated by the statutory audit firm for that particular audit engagement as being primarily responsible for carrying out the statutory audit on behalf of the audit firm,

§ in the case of a group audit, at least the statutory auditor (or, where more than one, each statutory auditor) designated by the statutory audit firm as being primarily responsible for carrying out the statutory audit at the level of the group,

in his or her own name, for and on behalf of, the audit firm.

The signature block at the bottom of an auditors’ report in respect of a financial statement for financial year commencing on or after 20 May 2010 would look like the following: (illustrative only)

Where the auditor is an individual: Where the auditor is an audit firm:
+ usual signature of individual + + usual signature of individual or where more than one, each statutory auditor +
Typed name of individual as it appears on the Public Register Typed name(s) of individual(s) for and on behalf of
Address (optional) Typed name of Statutory Audit Firm as it appears on the Public Register
Date Address (optional)
Date

Photocopy of original manuscript signature is acceptable but must be certified as true copy.

Regulation 15(3) of the Companies Act 1990 (Form and Content of Documents Delivered to Registrar) Regulations (S.I. No.39 of 2002), states:

"If a document is required to be signed (a) the signature shall be the original handwritten signature of the person, and (b) the date of the signature shall be stated on the document".

However, CRO will accept a photocopy of the original signature on the auditors’ report provided that the report is certified with original signatures by a director and secretary of the company as being a true copy of the actual auditors’ report that was laid, or that will be laid, before the company’s AGM, OR, in the case of full accounts, be named in an Overall Certificate signed by a director and secretary, naming each document (balance sheet, profit and loss account, director's report and auditors’ report) and stating that each is a true copy of that which was laid, or that will be laid, before the company’s AGM.

Appendix

The following are the relevant legal references:

European Communities (Statutory Audits) (Directive 2006/43/EC) Regulations 2010 - (S.I. No 220 of 2010).

Section 57.

Section 193 of the Act of 1990 is amended-,

  • (a) in subsection (4D), by deleting paragraph (a); and
  • (b) by inserting the following subsection after subsection (4F):

"(4G)

(a) The auditors’ report shall state the name of the auditor and be signed, as provided for in paragraph (b), and dated.

(b) Where the auditor is -

(i) a statutory auditor (within the meaning of the European Communities (Statutory Audits) (Directive 2006/43/EC) Regulations 2010, the report shall be signed by that person, or

(ii) a statutory audit firm (within the meaning of the foregoing Regulations), the report shall be signed by -

  • (I) the statutory auditor (or, where more than one, each statutory auditor) designated by the statutory audit firm for the particular audit engagement as being primarily responsible for carrying out the statutory audit on behalf of the audit firm, or
  • (II) in the case of a group audit, at least the statutory auditor (or, where more than one, each statutory auditor) designated by the statutory audit firm as being primarily responsible for carrying out the statutory audit at the level of the group,

in his or her own name, for and on behalf of, the audit firm.".

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The Form & Content Regulations (S.I. No. 39 of 2002) provide in Regulation 15(3) that:

"If a document is required to be signed-

  • (a) the signature shall be the original handwritten signature of the person, and
  • (b) the date of the signature shall be stated on the document".

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