By Brazil Stock Guide — Brazil’s securities regulator, the CVM, has suspended the registration of Boucinhas, Campos & Conti Auditores Independentes, preventing the firm from carrying out independent audit work in the country’s securities market.
The decision was published in Brazil’s Federal Official Gazette on Tuesday, October 6, and will remain in force until the long-established audit firm undergoes a new external review of its quality-control system, receives an unqualified report and obtains approval from the committee that oversees Brazil’s External Quality Review Program.
Under CVM rules, failure to comply with the external quality-review requirements in at least two of the previous five years results in the immediate suspension of an auditor’s registration. The suspension remains in place until a new review is completed satisfactorily.
Boucinhas, Campos & Conti has operated in Brazil for more than five decades and provides audit and consulting services. According to its website, the firm offers independent auditing, advisory and other services to companies and institutions. The company could not immediately be reached for comment. Brazil Stock Guide will update this story if it responds.
Documents from Brazil’s Federal Accounting Council, or CFC, show issues involving Boucinhas in two consecutive review cycles. In the 2023 External Quality Review Program report, the firm was among 25 auditors classified as “not approved.”
In the 2024 program, Boucinhas again appeared among firms with identified issues, this time as one of only two audit firms whose review reports were classified as having a “scope limitation.” The peer reviewer that year was Moreira Associados Auditores Independentes.
The external quality review effectively serves as an audit of the auditor. Firms registered with the CVM periodically have their procedures and internal controls assessed by another independent auditor, also registered with the regulator, to determine whether their systems and practices comply with professional standards.
The CVM has stressed that repeated problems in the program can lead to administrative measures. Its guidance says that a suspended firm must request a new review from the program’s oversight committee and, after obtaining an unqualified approval, apply to the CVM to have its registration reinstated.
While the suspension is in force, Boucinhas cannot act as an independent auditor for entities and transactions subject to Brazilian securities-market regulation. That could require adjustments by CVM-regulated clients with audit or review engagements currently under way.
The decision does not, by itself, amount to an allegation of accounting fraud, nor does it automatically invalidate financial statements previously audited by Boucinhas. The CVM action specifically concerns compliance with the quality-control requirements applicable to registered audit firms.
Leave a Reply