People who presumably aren’t paid by the Chinese government to say “everything is great!” have told Reuters that the PCAOB’s trip to Hong Kong to finally inspect Chinese audit work went pretty well.
U.S. regulators gained “good access” in their review of auditing work done on New York-listed Chinese firms during a seven-week inspection, four sources with knowledge of the matter said – a key step forward in resolving a long-standing bilateral dispute.
The sources, however, cautioned that the broader review of work done by Hong Kong and China-based auditors was ongoing and that no decision had been taken on whether the dispute could be considered over.
Inspectors with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) conducting the inspection in Hong Kong gained all the information they requested, one of the sources said. They were also allowed to print out some documents to more easily review information despite some initial hesitancy from Chinese officials, the source said.
Printing documents? In 2022? Did no one consider the environment before printing??
Other than these sources — who did not want to be named and were not authorized to speak to the media — the PCAOB is staying pretty quiet about how things went. A November 4 Bloomberg article about these inspections finishing up ahead of schedule was also full of references to these nebulous familiar people, none of whom seem to be willing to go on the record. So we will have to wait for the PCAOB to issue a report on its findings.
I worked in Hong Kong and China for a Chinese large Manufacturer based in Mainland China. Coming from 25 years in USA Public Accounting I was so interested in the audit by our Big 4 firm from Hong Kong. Hahaha. It was a joke. I was shocked at how little audit work was actually done. All China companies keep multiple sets of books. One for the provincial government, one set for the National Government, one set for the owners and one set for USA readers. It’s a joke. Trust me I would not rely on any Chinese Financial Statements. They are actually doing a compilation by USA standards according to the AICPA