The Ministry of Finance ("MOF") has recently issued the Decision on Amending the Measures for the Registration of Certified Public Accountants (the "Decision"), immediately effective from the date of issuance.
The Decision replaces the term "registration applicant(s)" in relevant articles with the term "applicant(s)", and revises Article 7 to read: "applicants and the accounting firms where they serve shall bear respective responsibilities for the truthfulness of information provided in application documents". In addition, the Decision adds one more paragraph to Article 16 as its second paragraph which reads: "the provincial-level department of finance will give a warning to an individual whose registration is cancelled or whose certified public accountant certificate is revoked due to the reason stated in Item (4) of the preceding paragraph and shall make a public announcement for this purpose". Also, a new article is introduced as Article 17, reading: "where an applicant and the accounting firm where he or she serves provide false application documents, the provincial-level department of finance will give a warning to this applicant and the chief partner (or chief accountant) of the accounting firm where he or she is employed, and make a public announcement for this purpose". Furthermore, the Decision brings modifications to Articles 6 and 9, among others.