‘Document Verification System will prevent multiple financial statements’

A Document Verification System (DVS) can stop the production of two or three types of financial statements and establish production of a single set of audited financial statement, Dr Md Hamid Ullah Bhuiyan, chairman of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), said at an MoU signing ceremony.

With a view to ensuring transparency and accountability and strengthening the monitoring and review system of the audited Financial Statements, the FRC under the Ministry of Finance, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding use of DVS with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) on Tuesday.

Dr Hamid Ullah Bhuiyan and Muhammad Farooq, president of ICAB, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.

“This MoU will fulfil the main objective of the FRC — monitoring financial statements. It will be possible for the FRC to easily verify true and fair view of companies’ audited financial statements,” Dr Hamid Ullah hoped.

“Listed companies’ contribution accounts for only 9 percent of the country's GDP, which is very low. If companies submit properly audited financial statements, the NBR's revenue will increase even more,” he further said.

He also said that ICAB and FRC will work together in the future to strengthen the auditing system, which will help to expedite the development pace of the country.

Muhammad Farooq said DVS has already become quite acceptable to the business community and other regulatory bodies.

“ICAB has provided trainings to CA firm representatives to make DVS effective. It will be effective in making the accounting system acceptable and reliable,” he commented.

“ICAB introduced this document verification system to curb malpractice of producing multiple financial statements and to establish transparency and accountability in the accounting system of the country.”

In a presentation on DVS ICAB Vice President Muhammed Forkan Uddin explained how the system works.

He mentioned that Unique Document Identification Numbers (UDINs) are being introduced in India.

“ICAB's registered auditors sign 16,000 financial statements every year while 46,000 financial statements are submitted to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies (RJSC),” he informed.

Asked who signed the remaining 30,000 reports, he said, these companies now would not be able to commit audit fraud as the DVS is functioning.

“As a result, the revenue of the government will increase a lot. The country's economy will be stronger,” he further said.

Among others, ICAB President for 2021 Mahmudul Hasan Khusru, Council Member and Past President of ICAB Kamrul Abedin, and Shubhashish Bose, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICAB, also spoke at the event.