Some ASIC staff lack necessary expertise to be helpful

Many staff working within the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) lack the necessary expertise to deal with accountants and other seeking assistance, according to major accounting body, Chartered Accountants ANZ (CA ANZ).

As well, the accounting body has suggested that the absence of key data has made ASIC’s registers no longer fit for purpose.

The accounting body has told ASIC its members consistently provide feedback expressing frustration that, when dealing with ASIC staff, many lack expertise in the area in which they are seek assistance.

“For example, processing of registered company auditor applications and auditor resignation applications. Our members have found a lack of awareness by ASIC staff of the alternate competency framework that can be relied on when applying to become a registered company auditor,” CA-ANZ said in response to ASIC’s regulatory simplification consultation.

“Contact centre staff must be at least as informed, if not more so, than the callers they are engaged to assist. Consideration could be given to developing topic specialists that contact centre staff can refer to and, as necessary, escalate complex issues to.

“While sophisticated electronic systems can improve user experience, it is important to maintain human contact points with appropriate expertise and authority to resolve issues efficiently,” CA-ANZ said.

It also questioned whether ASIC’s registers remained fit for purpose.

“Unfortunately, key data is currently held by different government agencies and there is a cost to access some information, which we consider results in ASIC registers no longer being fit-for-purpose,” the accounting body said.

“Data provided by ASIC’s regulated population should be accessible free-of-charge to all citizens engaging with those regulated parties,” it said.

“As users of ASIC’s Professional registers, the consistent feedback we receive from our members, and our own experience, is that they are not useful. Requiring a person to already know what they are looking before searching significantly limits the usefulness of these registers.

“For example, while you can search for an individual auditor, it is difficult for firms and professional bodies to use the registry to gain information about the wider Registered Company Auditor (RCA) population to use in their quality assessment processes.

“Equally, for a citizen looking for an auditor nearby, they would first have to use other tools, such as google, to locate nearby auditors then come back to ASIC’s professional register to confirm if those found and claiming to be an RCA are registered,” the CA-ANZ submission said.