(a) Conflicts of interest. (1) A Farm Credit institution may not engage a qualified public accountant to conduct the institution's audit if the accountant uses a partner, concurring partner, or lead member in the audit engagement team who was a director, officer or employee of the Farm Credit institution within the past year.
(2) A Farm Credit institution may not make an employment offer to a partner, concurring partner, or lead member serving on the institution's audit engagement team during the audit or within 1 year of the conclusion of the audit engagement.
(b) Rotation. Each institution may engage the same lead and reviewing audit partners of a qualified public accountant to conduct the institution's audit for no more than 5 consecutive years. The institution must then require the lead and reviewing audit partners assigned to the institution's audit team to rotate out of the audit team for 5 years. At the end of 5 years, the institution may again engage the audit services of those lead and reviewing audit partners.
authority: Secs. 5.17, 5.19, 5.22A, 8.11 of the Farm Credit Act (
12 U.S.C. 2183,
2202,
2202a,
2202d,
2252,
2257a,
2279aa; Pub. L. 102-552, 106 Stat. 4102, 4134
source: 58 FR 48786, Sept. 20, 1993, unless otherwise noted.
cite as: 12 CFR 621.32