Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 30 - Professions and Occupations › Part 1 - Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy Rules and Regulations Appendix; Schedule of Fees › Chapter 5 - Compliance Assurance Program › Rule 30-1-5.6 - Requirements of Sponsoring Organizations" Peer Review Program

Current through June 25, 2024
Rule 5.6.1. Minimum standards. The board hereby adopts
				  'standards for Performing and Reporting on Peer Reviews" and "Peer Review
				  Standards Interpretations" promulgated by the American Institute of Certified
				  Public Accountants, Inc., as its minimum standards for review of practice
				  units.
Rule 5.6.2. A sponsoring organization is subject to review
				  by an independent Board Oversight Committee as set forth in Rule.
Rule 5.6.3. To qualify as a sponsoring organization, an
				  entity must submit an administration plan to the Board for review and approval.
				  The plan of administration must:
(a)
				establish a peer review committee (PRC) and subcommittees as needed, and
				provide professional staff as needed for the operation of the review
				program;
(b) establish and document
				a program to communicate to practice units participating in the program the
				latest developments in peer review standards and the most common findings in
				the reviews conducted by the sponsoring organization;
(c) establish and document procedures for
				resolving any disagreement which may arise out of the performance of a
				review;
(d) establish procedures to
				resolve matters which may lead to the dismissal of a practice unit from the
				peer review program, and conduct hearings pursuant to those
				procedures;
(e) establish
				procedures to evaluate and document the performance of each reviewer, and
				conduct hearings which may lead to the disqualification of a reviewer who does
				not meet the AICPA standards;
(f)
				require the maintenance of records of reviews conducted under the program in
				accordance with the records retention rules of the AICPA; and
(g) provide for periodical examinations and
				reports to the Board's Oversight Committee on the results of the program.
Rule 5.6.4. A peer review committee (PRC) is comprised of
				  CPAs practicing public accountancy and formed by a sponsoring organization for
				  the purpose of accepting review reports submitted by practice units on review
				  engagements.
(a) Each member of a PRC
				must be active in the practice of public accountancy at a supervisory level in
				the accounting or auditing function while serving on the committee. The
				member's practice unit must be enrolled in an approved practice monitoring
				program and have received an unqualified report on its most recent review. A
				majority of the committee members must satisfy the qualifications required of
				onsite peer review team captains as established and reported in the
AICPA Standards for Performing and Reporting and Peer Reviews,
paragraph 76.
(b) Each member of
				the PRC must be approved for appointment by the governing body of the
				sponsoring organization.
(c) In
				determining the size of the PRC, the requirement for broad industry experience,
				and the likelihood of some members needing to recuse themselves during the
				consideration of some reviews a result of the members' close association to the
				practice unit or having performed the review, shall be considered.
(d) No more than one PRC member may be from
				the same practice unit.
(e) A PRC
				member may not concurrently serve as a member of his:
(1)state's board of public accountancy;
				or
(2)state's CPA society's ethics
				committee.
(f) A PRC
				member may not participate in any discussion or have any vote with respect to a
				reviewed practice unit when the committee member lacks independence as defined
				in Rule
				6.2. of the board's
Rules of
				Professional Conduct
(relating to
Independence)
or
				has a conflict of interest. Examples of conflicts of interest include, but are
				not limited to:
(1) the member's practice
				unit has performed the most recent review of the reviewed practice unit's
				accounting and auditing practice;
(2) the member served on the review team
				which performed the current or the immediately preceding review of the enrolled
				practice unit;
(3) the member
				serves on the state board of accountancy or state society ethics committee of
				any state in which any office of the practice unit is located; and
(4) the member believes he cannot be
				impartial or objective.
(g) Each PRC member must comply with the
				confidentiality requirements of Mississippi Code of 1972, Section
				73-33-12.
				The sponsoring organization may annually require its PRC members to sign a
				statement acknowledging their appointments and the responsibilities and
				obligations of their appointments.
Rule 5.6.5. Responsibilities of the Peer Review
				  Committee.
(a) The PRC shall establish
				and administer the sponsoring organization's review program in accordance with
				the
AICPA Standards for Performing and Reporting on Peer
				Reviews.
(b) The PRC
				shall, when necessary in reviewing reports on peer reviews, prescribe actions
				designed to assure correction of the deficiencies in the reviewed practice
				unit's system of quality control policies and procedures.
(c) The PRC shall monitor the prescribed
				remedial and corrective actions to determine compliance by the reviewed
				practice unit.
(d) The PRC shall
				resolve instances in which there is a lack of cooperation and disagreement
				between the committee and review teams or reviewed practice units in accordance
				with the sponsoring organization's adjudication process.
(e) The PRC shall act upon requests from
				practice units for changes in the timetable of their reviews.
(f) The PRC may appoint members to
				subcommittees and task forces as necessary to carry out its
				functions.
(g) The PRC shall
				establish and perform procedures for insuring that reviews are performed and
				reported on in accordance with the
AICPA Standards for Performing and
				Reporting on Peer Reviews.
(h) The PRC shall establish a report
				acceptance process which facilitates the exchange of viewpoints among committee
				members.
(i) The PRC shall
				communicate to the governing body of the sponsoring organization on a recurring
				basis:
(1) problems experienced by the
				enrolled practice units in their systems of quality control as noted in the
				reviews conducted by the sponsoring organization;
(2) problems experienced in the
				implementation of the review program; and
(3) a summary of the historical results of
				the review program.