13 Grant Thornton UK LLP has been sanctioned for failing to comply with the Regulatory Framework for Auditing in its audit of a local authority pension fund for the year ending March 2021.
The FRC’s enforcement committee said it found a significant departure from the standards expected of the Registered Auditor and identified failings that it considered had the potential to affect the public, employees, pensioners or creditors. The failings included two uncorrected material errors in the version of the pension fund’s audited financial statements included in the local authority’s annual report (these errors did not appear in the pension fund’s own financial statements) and insufficient audit evidence that the value of investments was materially correct.
£50,000 fine
The Committee considered that the imposition of a Sanction was necessary to ensure that Grant Thornton UK LLP’s Local Audit Functions were effectively undertaken, supervised and managed. Accordingly, it issued a Notice of Proposed Sanction proposing a Regulatory Penalty of £50,000, adjusted to £40,000 with a 20 percent discount for cooperation and other mitigating factors. The sanction was accepted by Grant Thornton UK LLP.
In addition, the Committee accepted the written Undertakings proposed by Grant Thornton UK LLP and the FRC will monitor compliance with the Undertakings.
US Treasury puts 13 Russian firms on radar for using crypto to evade sanctions
