Des marchés financiers (AMF) Authority is to establish a working group of 30 people to make recommendations on audit committees and risk management. Its two co-chairs, Olivier Poupart-Lafarge and Jean-François Lepetit, exposed to the "Echos" questions that the members of this group will have to ask, before making public their findings, in the summer 2010.
What is the purpose of this working group
J.-f. Lepetit. It's been almost a year the audit committees Ordinance is passed, transcribing in French law European directive: it is now the turn of the MFA to draw the consequences and to clarify the scope of the role of these bodies. Our working group is also part of the continuity of that which gave rise, two years ago, the publication of a reference framework on control devices internal to put in place within listed companies.
O. Poupart-Lafarge. This group is all the more whereas there is still a significant number of French listed companies to not have audit committees. In the compartment A of Euronext more than 1 billion euros of market capitalization, Editor's note, 98 of companies have a. But if acting compartments B and C, nearly four in ten business are unfounded. To improve this situation, it is imperative to eliminate areas of blur that can survive in the texts.
How will it consist
O. Poupart-Lafarge. We wanted a group which reflects all the interests involved. There are about 30 representatives of professional organizations, audit firms and issuers of all sizes. This number, enough, to reduce the risks of lobby.
J.-f. Lepetit. There are four subgroups. The first two will respectively to analyze all of the texts available on audit committees and refresh the reference on the risk management framework. Two other, more cross-cutting, should, for one, work on the composition of the audit committees and the responsibility of administrators who sit on and the other set the articulation between the audit committee and other bodies of the company. In addition, the Working Group should take account of the specificities and nuances that could be made depending on the type of companies concerned; all companies with not the same characteristics, including the smaller values or those with a family governance.
What are the parts of the order who deserve, according to you, to be clarified
J.-f. Lepetit. The "monitoring the effectiveness of internal control and management systems risk" raises many questions in the transmitters. When we talk about efficiency, talking generally leaders, responsible for the success or failure of the company. I personally think that this phrase means that audit committees have to ensure the existence of frameworks and reliable devices in the management of risk and internal control; Nevertheless the concept of effectiveness implies no doubt to question the results of these devices. A clarification is necessary.
O. Poupart-Lafarge. The order also requires that at least one of the members of the audit committee is competent both in independent and accounting matters. This concept of independence remains difficult to determine. It will be that we examine how the directive is applied in our European neighbours.
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