The 60Th Issue Of The Supervision Of The People'S Republic Of China

? ? ? In recent years, the reform of the capital market has continued to deepen, and the core of the reform is to adhere to the direction of marketization, let the market players fully play games, and let the invisible hand of the market guide the allocation of value and resources. In this process, as the "gatekeeper" of the capital market, audit institutions play an increasingly important role. Audit opinion is the concrete embodiment of the role of "gatekeeper" of audit institutions, and the "test conclusion" of Certified Public Accountants on the financial statements of listed companies, which directly affects the investors' trust in the financial statements. The disclosure of annual reports of Listed Companies in 2020 has basically ended. According to statistics, 170 companies in Shenzhen Stock Exchange have issued non-standard audit opinions. There are non-standard opinions year by year. What are the differences this year? Let's look at the regulation.

The role of "gatekeeper" is gradually emerging

? ? ? In recent years, the number and proportion of "non-standard opinions" of Listed Companies in Shenzhen stock market has shown an increasing trend. In 2020, there are 170 audit reports involving non-standard opinions in the annual reports of Listed Companies in Shenzhen stock market, accounting for about 7%. Among them, 17 companies are issued with unqualified opinions, 80 companies are issued with qualified opinions, and 73 companies are issued with unqualified opinions with explanatory notes.

The proportion of non-standard audit opinions accounted for 10% of all non-standard audit opinions issued by audit reports that could not express their opinions, an increase of 4 percentage points over the same period of last year. Based on the actual situation of the audit project and based on professional judgment, the annual audit accountants dare to stand firm. For example, in the merger and acquisition of an environmental protection company on the gem, the operating income will drop by more than 60% in 2020, and the loss will exceed 100 million yuan. The company's goodwill impairment test shows that there is no impairment. The annual audit accountant clearly points out in the audit report that "the operating income of the target company has decreased significantly, and the corresponding reputation has signs of impairment", The accountant issued the audit report of "unable to express opinions" on the financial statements of the company.

Combined with past experience, the "sudden exchange" of listed companies is often related to the degree of mitigation of audit opinions. Whether there is a phenomenon of "taking people's money and eliminating disasters for others" behind it has attracted the attention of the market. What is the situation under the registration system? From the annual report of the first year after the implementation of the registration system on the gem, after deducting the impact of some accounting firms' suspension of undertaking new securities business, a total of 79 GEM companies changed their annual audit accounting firms in 2020, a decrease of 43, or 35%, compared with that in 2019. Among them, 10 audit opinions were reduced and 6 companies' audit opinions were increased, On the whole, there have been positive changes in the phenomenon and impact of sudden exchange.

At the end of last year, A-share market implemented a new round of delisting system reform. Under the new delisting rules, audit opinions have become an important starting point for the implementation of the new delisting rules, which is crucial for the company to maintain its listing status. In addition to issuing audit opinions on the financial statements, the audit institution shall also issue special verification opinions on whether the company's business income mainly comes from the income unrelated to the main business and the income without commercial substance, whether the company has fund occupation, and pay close attention to the company's ability of sustainable operation.

Taking the gem as an example, 2020 is the first accounting year for the gem to implement the new delisting rules and introduce the risk warning system. After the disclosure of the annual report, 4 new companies have been issued with other risk warnings (st) and 16 companies have been given delisting risk warnings (* st), Non standard audit opinions and special verification opinions on income deduction are the important basis for 18 companies to "wear stars and hats".

From this year's situation, the number of non-standard audit opinions has not decreased, indicating that the audit quality of annual audit accountants has improved.

Non standard opinions to improve the transparency of listed companies

In recent years, improving the quality of listed companies and serving the development of the real economy has become the consensus of the whole market. From the situation of non-standard audit report in 2020, the focus of Accountants' attention is closely around the quality of listed companies, especially the ability of going concern, compliance and operation quality, and fully reveal the relevant situation. According to statistics, one third of the GEM companies with non-standard opinions have been identified by accountants as having doubts about their ability to continue as a going concern. Nearly a quarter of companies are involved in capital occupation and illegal guarantee. Nearly 20% of companies have difficulties in determining the authenticity and recoverability of receivables. In addition, many companies have been paid attention to transaction authenticity and commercial rationality by annual audit accountants There are some problems such as the uncertainty of the investigation results. It can be said that the matters involved in the non-standard opinions directly point to the core problems existing in the company at present, which improves the transparency of the company.

For example, a listed company engaged in online tourism business on GEM was issued an audit report that could not express opinions by the annual audit accountant. The accountant highlighted the following problems: unable to implement effective letter verification procedures of monetary funds, doubtful nature of advance payment, unresolved fund occupation, unknown destination of foreign investment funds, and appropriateness of goodwill impairment to be considered, Behind the chaos is the failure of the company's internal control to prevent or discover the above-mentioned matters in time. The company's internal control has major defects and has a wide impact.

With the development of A-share market, the polarization trend of listed companies gradually appears. In the view of industry insiders, non-standard audit opinions are also of great significance to timely and fully reveal the risks of listed companies. To some extent, they are also the mapping of company fundamentals and risk characteristics. This year, the market value of the companies with non-standard audit opinions is generally less than 5 billion yuan. The overall size of the company is small, and its ability to resist the changes in the external macro environment is weak. Some companies do not have obvious competitive advantages in the industrial chain. They are faced with greater capital pressure and risk of continuous operation, and illegal behaviors such as false transactions and fund occupation tend to rise, The level of corporate governance and standardized operation also needs to be improved.

Construction of a new pattern of audit practice under the registration system

While most of the annual audit accountants are daring to stand firm and stick to their duties, some phenomena are still worthy of attention.

On the one hand, it is still difficult to eliminate the situation of substituting "limited audit scope" for "material misstatement". In recent ten years, no listed company in Shenzhen stock market has been issued with negative audit report. Most of the unrepresentable opinions issued by the annual audit accountants are based on the uncertainty of related matters and the failure to implement further audit procedures to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence. They hold that the scope of audit is limited and then express their opinions, which fails to prove the existence of major misstatement in the financial statements. The rationality of some audit opinions is questionable.

Taking a listed company in Shenzhen's material industry as an example, in 2020, the CSRC has clearly reported that it is suspected of major financial fraud and false increase in profits, and nearly 4 billion yuan of external guarantee and related party transactions have not been disclosed according to law, and the accumulated funds occupied by the actual controllers are nearly 2.3 billion yuan. The annual audit accountants still use the reason that "they are unable to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence for relevant matters", It is worth exploring whether to replace "material misstatement of financial statements" with "limited audit scope" behind the statement.

On the other hand, it is worth discussing about the "universality" of the relevant matters of some reserved opinions. In this year's non-standard audit opinions of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, some audit reports with qualified opinions of listed companies showed that there were many issues at the same time, such as illegal guarantee, collectability of receivables and rationality of bad debt provision, out of control of subsidiaries, and doubt of commercial substance of capital transactions, involving multiple statement subjects. However, accountants still believe that the impact of the above matters is not extensive, The rationality of audit opinion is questionable.

For example, the accountants of a consumer goods company in Shenzhen can not obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence for the authenticity of the company's income in 2020. For important single matters such as income recognition, it will have a significant impact on the main components of the financial statements. The impact of income recognition may not only be the "income" statement item, but also have a significant impact on the overall financial statements, It is still a matter of concern.

As the "gatekeeper" of the capital market, through diligent, prudent and professional work, certified public accountants can improve the quality of financial information disclosure of listed companies and other entities, improve the transparency of the market, and establish a good market ecology, so as to promote the full play of the direct financing function of the capital market, And earnestly protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors. It can be said that at the new height of the reform and development of the capital market, the CPA has greater power, heavier burden and higher requirements.

In the view of the insiders, in the face of the new ecology of the capital market, if CPA still "wear new shoes and follow the old road", only be "good man" to maintain customer relationship, and "cover up" for the development of their own business into illegal activities, the market will eventually "stay away from it". On the other hand, we should strengthen the practice concept of quality first and reputation first, and really win the market recognition with professional competence. Over time, with the continuous improvement of practice quality, brand reputation and market recognition will also be improved. We believe that the positive interactive pattern of mutual promotion and mutual achievement between professional accountants and high-quality listed companies will eventually take shape.

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