The Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) disqualified Peter Brennan from being an approved SMSF auditor after investigating work he performed during 2011 and 2012.
The ATO referred concerns to about Brennan’s conduct under Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (the SIS Act) to ASIC, who subsequently found the work he performed in auditing three SMSFs for 2011 and 2012 to be deficient.
In particular, Brennan failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence about the funds' compliance with the SIS Act and consequently a number of significant contraventions were not identified by him.
Brennan also failed to provide written audit reports to the funds.
ASIC commissioner John Price said the watchdog and the ATO were committed to ensuring SMSF auditors are performing their duties appropriately.
“As the SMSF sector continues to grow in popularity with Australian investors, it is critical that approved SMSF auditors perform their role adequately,” Price said.
“ASIC will continue to work with the ATO in acting to identify and remove auditors whose audit quality performance falls short.”
Since 1 July 2013, the SIS Act has required all auditors of SMSFs to be registered with ASIC.
The objective was to ensure that all SMSF auditors at least meet the base standards of competency and expertise.
