The ‘high profile and expensive failure’ of a £50m project to build a garden bridge across the Thames in London, which was set up as a charity to raise funding, has been described as a failure for charities, policymakers and the regulator itself, according to a report by the Charity Commission

Mid-tier firm BDO has confirmed that it is considering various options to hive off the audit practice from the rest of its accounting, tax and business advisory activities to ensure profitability and remove potential conflict, reports Sara White

Rachel Reeves, chair of the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) select committee has challenged the Financial Reporting council (FRC) over its choice of Sally Dewar to lead its recently announced assessment of the governance and culture of KPMG's audit practice, on the grounds that she trained with the firm

As MPs call for a breakup of the Big Four accounting firms to hive off audit services, remove conflicts of interest and increase competition, Julia Bowyer ACA argues that an overhaul of the arguably outdated Companies Act would be a more effective way to change the balance of responsibilities between boards and auditors

With listed entity audit under scrutiny, public sector audit may seem to have gone below the radar, but there are issues from declining fees to concerns about the scope and effectiveness. As the Kingman review has raised the stakes for corporate audit,so will it reverberate across all areas of audit, says Paul Dossett, head of local government, Grant Thornton UK LLP

Rachel Reeves MP, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) select committee, has slammed the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for being an ill-led regulator, highlighting that the incoming Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) must have new leadership and that this ‘cannot come soon enough’

KPMG is facing further scrutiny by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which is to carry out an assessment of the governance, controls and culture within KPMG’s audit practice, in the wake of its ongoing investigation of the firm’s auditing of collapsed auditor Carillion and the ‘unacceptable’ deterioration in quality highlighted in its annual quality review

MPs are calling for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to aim for the full structural break-up of the Big Four firms into audit and non-audit businesses, along with a market cap and the use of joint audits, in order to tackle conflicts of interest, develop the market for challenger firms and increase professional scepticism

A string of frauds involving dubious financial transactions and invoice manipulation leaves Emile Woolf FCA questioning the role of auditors when facing fundamental decisions about materiality

The  Big Four firms have revealed they are failing to charge some audit clients for the full cost of the auditing work they carry out, fuelling concerns that they may be using audit work as a ‘loss leader’ on key accounts, according to information provided to the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee which suggests there are cost overruns in as many as half of all engagements

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published technical advice on the minimum information content of documents describing a takeover, merger or division where a prospectus is not required

In this month’s audit updates, FRC to be replaced by new audit regulator, PwC Colonial Bank fine, tougher going concern rules, multiple audit moves, whistleblower protection, Financial Reporting Lab future direction, poor value for money arrangements in local public bodies

Although the audit profession is very much in the spotlight at the moment, audit tenders have remained below the radar. Amy Austin, reporter at Accountancy Daily, investigates what is involved in a tender, why costs are so high and how firms compete against one another

Debbie Green, vice president of ERP at Oracle, discusses how finance teams can declutter, improve their productivity and feel more joy using the KonMari approach

The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) is consulting on planned changes to the code of ethics to ensure it is in line with the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board’s (IAASB) independence standards for non-audit related assurance engagements