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Will Audit Firms Go Public with Financial Results?

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The subcommittee on concentration and competition, led by Damon Silvers, associate general counsel at trade union AFL-CIO, urged more auditor liability protections. For example, the subcommittee recommended that the PCAOB monitor potential sources of catastrophic risk at audit firms — such as being named a defendant in a lawsuit related to a major corporate scandal — to prevent the collapse of a large firm. What's more, it recommended that a plan be put in place for rehabilitating large "troubled" firms and keep them afloat while they reorganized. Such a plan, the report said, would require congressional action.

The centerpiece of the recommendations put forth by the subcommittee on human capital, which was headed by Gary John Previts, president of the American Accounting Association and an accounting professor at Case Western Reserve University, was an effort to bring more minorities into the auditing profession. The group proposed mentoring programs and recruitment at colleges that traditionally have a large African-American student enrollment.

In light of the SEC's proposal to switch U.S. companies to international accounting standards, the subcommittee also recommended new accounting curricula, ensuring an adequate supply of qualified accounting faculty, and a "scholars and sabbatical" program to foster an exchange of ideas related to accounting education.


Reader CommentsDisplaying 1 of 1

  • Jerome Kern

    Sep 27, 2008 1:52 AM ET

    How does this help?

    I'm sure it would feel nice to force public accounting to live by the rules that they enforce on other people, but why? … more

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