ccounting firm EY Barbados has earned more than $10 million in revenue from audits done over the past year, including its preparation of financial reports for some well known Government and private organizations in Barbados.
This was disclosed in a new Transparency Report 2013 released by EY, better known as Ernst & Young, which also disclosed that the money earned up to the end of June was $400 000 less when compared to that for the same period last year.
News of this came simultaneously with an announcement from country manager Maria Robinson that the firm would be “investing in tools” to improve its audits as part of its new Vision 2020 strategy.
EY said the majority of its reported revenue was for statutory audits, followed by tax advisory services and other non-audit services. Up to the period ending June 30 this year, the firm earned $6.8 million from statutory audits (69 per cent of revenue), $2.3 million from tax advisory services (24 per cent of revenue), and $772 000 from non-audit services (eight per cent of revenue).
In the comparative period last year it earned more from these areas of activity. At the end of June 2012 EY had tallied revenue of $7 million from statutory audits (67 per cent of revenue), $2.5 million from tax advisory services (24 per cent of revenue), and $909 000 from non-audit services.
Due diligence
Both this year and last year there was no report of earnings from “other assurance services”, which “includes accounting and financing services, certain due diligence services, and risk-related services including internal controls, internal audits, technology and security, actuarial, fraud and forensics, and other attestation services”.
The company said this financial information “represents combined, not consolidated, revenues and includes expenses billed to clients and revenues related to billings to other [Ernst & Young Global Limited] member firms”. Revenue amounts disclosed also “include revenues from both audit and non-audit clients”, it added.
In its most recent financial year EY said it “performed statutory audits” for 29 “public interest entities” here.
The list included Grantley Adams International Airport Inc, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, National Insurance Fund, Transport Board, Caribbean Development Bank, and several private financial institutions, insurers, and manufacturers.
In a “letter” introducing the 32-page report, Robinson said as part of its new strategy called Vision 2020 her organization was “investing in tools to improve the audit, creating the highest-performing teams, and focusing on building trust and confidence in the audits we perform in Barbados and around the world”.
“Auditors play a vital role in the efficient functioning of our capital markets through promoting transparency and supporting investor confidence. Our clients, regulators and other stakeholders count on us to deliver quality and excellence, and executing audits in a high-quality manner remains central to our role in serving the public interest and growing EY successfully,” she said.
“Regular dialogue with our stakeholders is a priority for us and what we hear helps inform our views and actions.
“In this spirit, we continue to embrace the transparency objectives of the European Union’s 8th Company Law Directive and which require Barbados statutory auditors of public interest entities to publish annual transparency reports. This EY Barbados Transparency Report 2013 complies with the directive and covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013,” Robinson explained.
