Accreditation

• ACCREDITATION

  Act of giving official authorization or approval to a qualified auditor conduct financial audit to cooperatives.
• COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (CDA)

  -          Refers to the only government agency granting juridical personality to cooperatives, herein referred to as the Authority.
• AUDITING FIRM

  • refers to either the partners of a firm providing audit services or a sole practitioner providing audit services, as appropriate.
• AUDITOR-IN-CHARGE

  -          refers to the team leader of the audit engagement.
• COOPERATIVE EXTERNAL AUDITOR (CEA)

  -          refers to an independent Certified Public Accountant (CPA) accredited by the CDA, whose relationship to the client is to express an opinion on the financial statements. He/she may be the signing partner in an auditing firm or a sole practitioner.
• FRAUD

       refers to an intentional act by one or more individuals among management, employees, or third parties that result in a misrepresentation of financial statements.
• PARTNER

  -          refers to all members of a partnership or an audit firm but not necessarily conducting audit to cooperatives.
• PARTNERSHIP

  -          refers a professional partnership engaged in the practice of public accountancy duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• AUDIT ENGAGEMENT LETTER

  -          refers to a letter that informs the cooperative of an upcoming audit.
• Requirements for accreditation either for initial or renewal shall be submitted in complete set with presentation of ORIGINAL COPIES.
• ·          The training requirements for the Accreditation of Cooperative External Auditors shall be equivalent to a minimum of 24 hours of training both for initial and renewal.
• ·          These trainings shall be conducted by the PICPA in coordination with CDA in accordance with the prescribed training course outlines attached in this Circular (Annex 4.1 and 4.2).
• ·          Training attended by the CPA is valid for five (5) years from the date of issue of the Certificate of Attendance to Training
• ·          Certificate of Training for renewal can only be used once by the applicant.
• ·          The accreditation of Cooperative External Auditor shall be approved by the CDA Board of Administrators (CDA-BOA) upon recommendation of the CRITD/IDD of the CDA-CO through the Executive Director.
• ·          The accreditation of external auditor shall be valid for a period of three (3) years from the date of issue.
• ·          The CDA accredited cooperative external auditors may apply for the renewal of their accreditation within three (3) months prior to the expiration.
• ·          Accredited cooperative external auditors may accept audit engagement from cooperatives in different regions and are not be limited to the region where he/she applied for accreditation.