Hong Kong audit regulator is working with Ministry of Finance on ways to fast track access to mainland audit papers

Hong Kong’s audit regulator is working with China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) to set up a “fast track” for it to gain access to mainland audit working papers for its investigations, according to the chairman of the city’s body.

The Accounting and Financial Reporting Council (AFRC), which rebranded from the former Financial Reporting Council on October 1, said it needed more than a year to receive audit documents from mainland authorities in five investigations, according to chairman Kelvin Wong Tin-yau. He did not provide more details on the investigations concerned.

The council received papers last month after making requests to mainland authorities in September last year, which Wong described as a lengthy process that “imposed inefficiencies on the investigation process”.

“We have had Covid-19 restrictions in China over the last two years, which is just one of the reasons that it took so long for us to get the papers. But it’s also because the current mechanism involves a lot of approval procedures from different bureaus,” said Wong in a media briefing on Thursday.

To improve the situation, the council is working closely with the Ministry of Finance to explore ways for more guidance in helping to streamline the process.

“Our intention is to come up with a resolution between the AFRC and the MOF regarding design of a fast track channel so that we do not need to go through the normal, ordinary channels and which allows us to access the audit papers located in mainland China in a faster manner,” Wong said.