04-APR-16

» The Vital Role of the External Shari'a Auditor in the Islamic Financial Institutions

Researchers emphasize the importance of the external Shari'a Audit to oversee the work of Shari'a Control Boards. The Shari'a Control Board within an Islamic bank gives its opinion as to whether the transactions are permissible or forbidden (i.e. against the Shari'a law) and whether or not the transactions were made in the most appropriate way. The combination between these two tasks conflict at times; however it is prescribed by the laws of some of the Islamic banks.

The Shari'a Board issues Fatwa (Legislation) and checks (by itself or by delegating to others) the correctness of the application. Due to the non-separation of powers and the combination of opposing jobs, this sometimes leads to changes to the previously issued Fatwa (legislation/standard). This means that the transactions are not consistent with Fatwa (legislation).
In order to complete the enhancement of legitimate governance requirements in Islamic banks and to ensure the stability and integrity of the application of the standard, there should be a separation between the Fatwa Committee and the Shari'a Audit Committee to prevent confusion between these opposing jobs. So, the accountability is achieved by separating the roles and can be described as similar to the work of an accountant and an external auditor.

The External Shari'a Auditor should have clear conditions to achieve the best results. These include:
- The Shari'a Auditor should be appointed, dismissed and rewarded by the Shareholders of the General Assembly and not by the Bank’s Administration in exactly the same way as for auditors.
- The Shari'a Auditor should not have a relation with the bank as a shareholder, even if it is only a few shares, or as a depositor.
Thus, it is necessary to encourage new companies to conduct Shari'a Audit and Shari'a Consultancy because there are not currently sufficient companies to keep pace with the huge and rapid development in the Islamic banking.                                                                                                   
The first “private” company of its kind was incorporated in Kuwait in 2003, and was followed by several other consulting companies during the following years in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jeddah, Dubai, Oman, Doha and London. However, due to the growing number of Islamic banks, many more Shari’a Auditors companies are needed.