Atty. Gregorio B. Austral, CPA
The end of the era of multiple accreditations?
In order to engage in public practice, CPAs need to secure several accreditations from different government agencies. The most basic of these accreditation requirements is the Board of Accountancy (BOA) accreditation. If a CPA wants to teach accounting and related courses, he has to get another kind of accreditation from BOA specifically for accounting teachers. Before even qualifying for any of these basic accreditations, a person has to undergo a rigorous education and training in accountancy schools and pass through the eye of the needle in the CPA Licensure Examination.
BOA accreditation is just a basic requirement on top of being a CPA already. If the audited financial statements are to be submitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the auditor needs to get a BIR accreditation before the financial statements will be accepted. If the financial statements will be filed at the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), the auditor needs to secure a CDA-accreditation. In the case of public companies and publicly-listed companies, external auditors need to get another accreditation from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Moreover, auditors of banks and other entities regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are required to be BSP-accredited accountants.
This situation brings us to the question: Who oversees the regulation of the accountancy profession?
The Supreme Court has recently set the record straight in the case of SEC vs. 1-Accountants Party-List, Inc. Only the Board of Accountancy has the power to regulate the practice of accountancy in the Philippines.
In striking down the Securities Regulation Code (SRC) Implementing Rules and Regulations imposing accreditation requirements for auditors of public companies and publicly-listed companies, the SC ruled that the SRC provisions relied upon by SEC flow from its jurisdiction over corporations and cannot be made to apply to individual CPAs. While the SEC may regulate corporations as well as the securities market, such regulation does not extend to an authority to restrict, even in the slightest degree, the practice of accountancy. The accreditation requirement imposed by the SEC amounts to a licensing requirement which curtails the right of CPAs to practice their profession. CPAs are burdened with the accreditation requirement that imposes fines for violation. CPAs need not go through the accreditation process because such is part of the practice of accountancy for which their CPA license already suffices.
Finally, the high tribunal said that the power to supervise the accounting profession and to impose regulations on CPAs is exclusively delegated to the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy and cannot be delegated to SEC and other government agencies pursuant to the legal maxim, “delegata potestas non potest delegari” or what has been delegated by Congress can no longer be further delegated or redelegated by the original delegate to another.