Recently, the Ministry of Finance ("MOF") has drafted the Guiding Opinions on Intensifying the Building of Integrity for Accountants (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to solicit comments from units concerned before July 21, 2017.
The Draft for Comment encourages employers to work out the integrity management system for accountants in order to intensify accountants' responsibilities in honesty and integrity. According to the Draft for Comment, it is required to establish the integrity information management system for accountants which specifies contents of accountants' integrity information, methods to collect such information, requirements on archiving such information and conditions for using such information, and set up credit records for accountants and regulate the use of information about accountants' integrity. In addition, the Draft for Comment calls for improving the mechanism for rewarding accountants acting in good faith and imposing punishments on those acting in bad faith. In the event that an accountant with the professional accounting qualification has committed a serious dishonest act, his or her professional accounting qualification should be cancelled. Finally, efforts will be made to explore a disclosure system for accountants' serious dishonest behaviors, with the view to making public the information about accountants' serious dishonest acts.