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COMMERCIAL LAW
85
are such persons, and who hold the title of certified public accountant
or independent financial adviser (YMM or SMMM) for the purpose of
conducting independent audit, may be auditors.
In principle, auditors must be elected by the general assembly of the
company until 31.03.2013 pursuant to Provisional Article 6 (2) of the
TCC. The term of duty of internal auditors shall end automatically upon
such election and at the latest on 31.03.2013.
In accordance with Art. 399/1 of the TCC, the board of directors
shall have the appointed auditor registered with the trade registry and
announced in the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette, as well as on the
website of the company without delay.
Except tax consulting and tax auditing, an auditor may not provide
consulting or other services to a company he audits. Nor can the auditor
provide such services through a subsidiary.
The auditor may be released from his duty only if another auditor is
appointed. Other than this, the auditor may be released from duty only by
way of a court decision.
Moreover, if the certified public accountant, the independent financial
adviser and/or the auditing company or one of its shareholders or persons
working with its shareholders or person(s) with whom the aforementioned
persons are working together, are a shareholder, director or employee in
the company to be audited; a director, shareholder or one of blood and
in-law relatives up to the third degree of the statutory representative or the
director of the legal person connected with the company to be audited;
has been active in or contributed to the bookkeeping or organizing of
the financial statements of the company to be audited or bear similar
characteristics which may prevent the auditor from realizing his duty
independently as determined by the Auditing Regulation or if the auditor
is employed by an auditor with such characteristics, he shall not be
allowed to audit.
Similarly, an auditor appointed for seven years within ten years for
the same company may not be appointed again before three years. For
independent audit firms, the term spent as auditor under the old legislation
shall be taken into account in the calculation of this period. In our opinion,