The Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) has recognized top officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission for their contributions in upholding transparency and accountability as accountants in the government service.
SEC Chairperson Emilio B. Aquino received the Special Achievement Award in International Professional Involvement for his active participation in international affairs and programs that promote good governance and sustainability reporting.
Meanwhile, SEC General Accountant Emmanuel Y. Artiza was got the Special Achievement Award in Government Service for consistently promoting the highest standards in the accounting profession as general accountant of the SEC.
“We thank PICPA for promoting the role of the accounting profession in achieving transparency and accountability not just in the government service but also in the private practice,” said Aquino.
He added that, “The SEC is proud to have its own pool of bright accountants who ensure compliance with both local and international standards among its supervised entities.” “As regulator of the corporate sector, the SEC will continue to establish best practices toward the sound and prudent use of public funds, as well work for the improvement of audit quality, in order to promote trust and confidence in the business community,” noted Aquino.
Aquino is the first Certified Public Accountant and lawyer to serve as the SEC’s chairperson.
Since the start of his term in 2018, the Commission has received unqualified opinions from the Commission on Audit on the fairness of presentation of its financial statements from 2018 to 2021.
This is the longest streak of unqualified opinions that the SEC has received over the past decade.
Meanwhile, the Commission published the very first SEC Oversight Assurance Review (SOAR) Public Inspection Report under Artiza’s guidance, as part of the SEC’s continuing commitment to high quality audits, which is important in boosting the confidence and trust of users of financial statements.
The report covers observations on audit quality during the first cycle of SOAR inspection from 2018 to 2021. It also highlights common inspection findings, common root causes of these findings and notable best practices of audit firms.
This year, the Commission also hosted for the first time the ASEAN Audit Regulators Group, which seeks to foster closer collaboration toward promoting audit quality across the region.
As General Accountant of the SEC, Artiza also serves as the Commission’s alternate representative to the Auditing and Assurance Standard Council and Financial Reporting Standards Council, as well as a member of the Philippine Interpretations Committee.