What happened
The Public Oversight, Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority (KGK, Kamu Gözetimi, Muhasebe ve Denetim Standartları Kurumu) extended by one year the exemption in paragraph 3 of Provisional Article 1 of the Sustainability Audit Regulation (Sürdürülebilirlik Denetimi Yönetmeliği), through a Board Decision dated 30 October 2026. The decision was published in the Official Gazette on 5 November 2026 (No. 33421), and KGK announced it separately on 6 November 2026.
The exemption allows auditors who are not authorised in sustainability to sit on teams performing sustainability audits (assurance on reports prepared under the Turkish Sustainability Reporting Standards, TSRS). Under the new decision:
- Reporting periods ending before 1 January 2028: Auditors without sustainability authorisation may be included in the main and alternate audit teams, provided that the responsible auditor and at least two auditors are authorised in sustainability.
- Periods ending before 1 January 2027: According to the KGK announcement, the responsible auditor and at least one authorised auditor remain sufficient for these periods.
KGK says a certain level of capacity has now been built in this field, and presents the higher number of authorised auditors as preparation for the rules that will apply once the exemption ends. According to KGK's May 2026 announcement, the exemption does not remove the requirement for a team of at least three auditors, including the responsible auditor, or the requirement for alternate auditors.
Who is affected
Companies within TSRS scope that obtain mandatory assurance on their sustainability reports, and the independent audit firms that perform this work. For a company whose reporting period is the calendar year, the audit of its 2027 report falls under the new rule. The stricter requirement for authorised auditors, combined with continued room for non-authorised team members, may affect audit firms' capacity planning and therefore companies' assurance timelines.
What companies should do
- Discuss the proposed team for the 2026 and 2027 periods with your audit firm, and confirm early who the responsible auditor and the other sustainability-authorised auditors will be.
- Plan the assurance timeline together with the option to publish 2026 reports later.
- Prepare the greenhouse gas data the auditor will ask for (source records, emission factors, calculation workbooks) in a traceable form; a well-documented Scope 1, 2 and 3 inventory shortens the assurance process.
Alalëa supports the preparation of assurance-ready greenhouse gas inventories aligned with TSRS 2: carbon footprint.
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