The Corporate Affairs Ministry ( MCA) has appointed Shefali Shah, a retired IRS officer, as Chairperson of the CA Institute’s Quality Review Board ( QRB).

It has also now notified K Saravanan, Chief General Manager, Corporate Finance Department at SEBI as Member of the QRB. Ritika Bhatia, Director General (commercial-II), Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has also been notified as Member of QRB.

The QRB established under the Chartered Accountants Act 1949 has 11 members including six nominees of the central government (Chairman and five members). The CA Institute has five nominees to the QRB. It maybe recalled that the first QRB was constituted by the central government in June 2007.

The role of QRB has got diluted in recent years after the Centre set up the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) and gave the new body disciplinary powers over auditors of listed entities and large unlisted companies besides banks and insurance companies. With this move, NFRA has become the all-powerful body when it comes to disciplining auditors and overseeing the quality of service rendered by chartered accountants at large entities.

NFRA also has the powers to monitor and enforce compliance with accounting and auditing standards, undertake investigation of the auditors of listed entities, unlisted entities with paid up capital of not less than ₹500 crore or annual turnover of over ₹ 1,000 crore or those having aggregate loans, debentures or deposits of not less than ₹500 crore as of March 31 of the preceding financial year.

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