Structural flaws in the accounting system must be addressed, an accounting professor said yesterday at a seminar in Taipei. He also urged accountants to exercise professional self-discipline to reduce frauds and strengthen corporate governance.
Although accountants are hired by companies to verify financial statements, these professionals should manifest their independence and competence to hold their clients accountable to the companies' current and future shareholders, said Ko Chen-en (
Ko said the defective accounting system can become an accomplice to corporate financial irregularities when company leaders intend to cover up wrongdoing. Ko is also director-general of the Corporate Governance Association Taiwan (中華公司治理協會).
"Because the party that pays money [to accountants] and the party that [the accountants] should be responsible to are different, these professionals face difficulty in maintaining their supervision quality when they're sometimes under pressure from higher-ups," he said.
Speaking at a crowded seminar held by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, Ko said a better way would be for companies' auditing committees, composed of independent board members, to directly communicate with accountants.
Ko spoke to review the aftermath of Procomp Informatics Ltd's (
Nearly 10,000 of Procomp's more than 38,000 investors had been affected by the default, Vice Minister of Finance Gordon Chen (
Several Procomp investors demanded the government compensate them for their losses yesterday at a press conference organized by Democratic Progressive Party legislators Charles Chiang (江昭儀) and Chen Mao-nan (陳茂男).
Liang Hsi-tsung (
"We bought Procomp's corporate bond because we believed that the Securities and Futures Bureau conducted a detailed examination before allowing Procomp to raise more capital," Liang said.
Therefore, Liang and other affected investors said they would also demand compensation from the Securities and Futures Bureau and from the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp for alleged negligence.
Yeh was detained on June 27, and four accountants were punished last week by the Financial Supervisory Commission for their negligence in certifying Procomp's financial documents.
"All these problems boil down to morality," Ko said.
To nip such fraud in the bud, Ko said, corporate governance should be stressed and become a reference indicator for the government to manage financial institutions and listed companies.
"The Procomp fraud is only a beginning, not an independent case," said Tony Tsai (
"I believe this case has sent shockwaves through and served as a warning for the investment trust sector," Tsai said. He said the sector requires further risk controls or it will risk rejection by investors.
(With additional reporting by Debby Wu)
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last