1. Professional Skepticism
Richard Fleck, Chair
IESBA Meeting
Athens, Greece
June 18-20, 2018

2. PS Working Group members
Richard Fleck, Chair
Hiro Fukukawa
Trish Mulvaney
James Barbour

3. Objectives Status of Consulation Paper Status of Roundtables
Released in mid-May, comment period through 15 August
Status of Roundtables
Two held, two to come
Tokyo – July 12
Melbourne, Australia* – July 16
Supported by APESB and NZ XRB

4. Activities Since March 2018 Meeting
CP approved by IESBA in April; released in May 2018
NSS meeting
Forum of Firm meeting
Two roundtables
Washington DC and Paris
APESB and NZ XRB offered to host additional roundtable in Australia

5. About Roundtables ½ day PS session Introduction: Stavros Thomadakis
PS scene setting
Washington DC: Trish Mulvaney
Paris: Richard Fleck
PS Breakout Sessions
Washington DC: Chaired by Trish Mulvaney and Richard Fleck
Paris: Chaired by Richard Fleck and James Barbour
PS Report-back: Ken Siong and John Morrow

6. Options presented to Roundtable Groups
Professional Skepticism
Options presented to Roundtable Groups
PS as currently defined in auditing standards
PS re-defined
Develop another term and definition
Enhance guidance in the Code
Address role of bias, pressure and other impediments
Choosing Options 1, 2 or 3 would not preclude also doing Options 4 and/or 5

7. Observations so far (sans Tokyo and Melbourne)
No support for options 1 and 2
Push back/concern on “PS” with amended definition
Support for a new term
Liked what the new term would encompass (paragraph 10 of CP)
Support for options 4 and 5
Endorsed the direction of travel!

8. Preliminary thoughts on Options forward
Work on a new term and definition with associated application material
Overarching statement of expectation on what it means to be a PA
Public interest; impartial and diligent mindset
Scalability
Develop “bias”
Amalgam of A+B

9. Important consideration
New term needs to drive behavior rather than just be words.

10. Questions?

11. The Ethics Board