I agree with you. Not mandatory. But we know that they are under tremendous pressure to get things right.
Needless to say nothing coming out of the mouth of their current accountant will be trusted. That's why they are taking on external accountants to review the accounts. I agree with you that it may not be an audit, but those new accountants are aware of the situation and they will take extreme precautions to sign off on the accounts before they are released. They will be the ones that everyone will be watching when the stock comes out of suspension.
BIG also stated that they have "engaged new accountants". To me, this means the previous team is out de facto, if not de jure.
