Public Company Accounting Oversight Board; Will It Protect Investors?

In general, the main criticisms of the PCAOB are that it has not made sufficient it’s regulatory power, it is slow to act in its investigations of enforcement cases, and that it targets enforcement on smaller firms in order to protect the Big 4 firms, which are regarded as “too big to fail.” While I do not disagree with the fact that the PCAOB is slow and has not produced a significant amount of regulation, I do disagree with the criticism of the PCAOB as a regulatory body in general. I feel that certain members of the public desire absolute transparency in financial reporting, but do not understand the economy required to so. It is nearly impossible, not to mention impractical, to breakdown every aspect of a multi-billion dollar corporation to ensure that every transaction is accounted for

3 – Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) (source: PYP7-6 Kimmel textbook.) The PCAOB was created as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It has oversight and enforcement responsibilities over CPA firms in the United States.

In general, the main criticisms of the PCAOB are that it has not made sufficient it’s regulatory power, it is slow to act in its investigations of enforcement cases, and that it targets enforcement on smaller firms in order to protect the Big 4 firms, which are regarded as “too big to fail.” While I do not

In this court case in which the Petitioner accounting firm which was a non profit organization wanted to sue the PCAOB because they believe that the President had not control over the members of the board and threaten the separation of power law. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also known as SOX was to put in place to protect investors from fraud in accounting activities in corporations. The courts ruled that the separation of powers was not broken because The President of the United States can remove member of the SEC, which the SEC controls the PCAOB.

The PCAOB is responsible for providing independent oversight for public accounting firms. Auditors independence job is to limit conflict of interest and monitor the requirements of new auditor approvals. Corporate responsibility require that senior executives take sole responsibility for completeness and accuracy of all corporate financial reports. Last but not least, enhance financial disclosures assures the accuracy of financial reports and

People often question whether corporate boards matter because their day-today impact is difficult to observe. But, when things go wrong, they can become the center of attention. Certainly this was true of the Enron, Worldcom, and Parmalat scandals. The directors of Enron and Worldcom, in particular, were held liable for the fraud that occurred: Enron directors had to pay $168 million to investor plaintiffs, of which $13 million was out of pocket (not covered by insurance); and Worldcom directors had to pay $36 million, of which $18 million was out of pocket. As a consequence of these scandals and ongoing concerns about corporate governance, boards have been at the center of the policy

Title I consists of nine sections and establishes the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, to provide independent oversight of public accounting firms providing audit services ("auditors"). It also creates a central oversight board tasked with

Board (PCAOB). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was born in 2002 and although it is almost 13

The act is also referred to as Sarbox or SOX. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is responsible for enforcement of the law. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) was created as a new auditor through SOX. Standards were stipulated for audit reports.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to assume the responsibility of overseeing the auditors of public companies. The PCAOB is a private-sector, non-profit corporation. It was established to "protect the interests of investors and further the public interests in the preparation of informative, fair, and independent audit reports". (The PCAOB) Although the PCAOB is a private sector organization, it has many government-like regulatory functions. The PCAOB was created in response to an increasing number of accounting restatements by public companies during the 1990s and a series of recent high-profile scandals like Enron and WorldCom. Prior to the PCAOB, the audit industry was self-regulated

In addition, the PCAOB was given broad responsibilities, including enforcing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the SEC’s rules, the professional accounting standards, the securities laws, and its own rules. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, among other things, created the PCAOB. Furthermore, to reaffirm the public's confidence in the nation's financial markets and to establish a more uniform system of corporate accountability and disclosure, the Sarbanes-Oxley's goals was to implement a series of controls and safeguards on public companies. Moreover, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act selected the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the PCAOB. Further, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act states that the PCAOB’s budget and accounting support fee be subject to approval by the SEC being that they are the ones who fund the operations of

The PCAOB gives a new meaning to the public accounting industry. The board must be composed of five members, appointed for a 5-year term, two of which are Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) or have previously been CPAs, and three of which have never been CPAs. The chair of the PCAOB may be a CPA, but only if he has been out of practice for at least five years. "The members must be independent of the accounting profession as no member may, concurrent with service on the board, share in any of the profits of, or receive payments from, a public accounting firm, other than fixed payment such as retirement payments" (4). All members of the PCAOB must be appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The board performs various jobs which include: "oversee the audit of public companies, establish audit report standards and rules, inspect, investigate and enforce compliance on the part of registered public accounting firms and those associated with the firms" (4). Not only do public accounting firms who audit the financial reports of public companies have to register with the PCAOB, but foreign public accounting firms must register as well. The standards of auditing include:

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted in July 30, 2002, by Congress to protect shareholders and the general public from fraudulent corporate practices and accounting errors and to maintain auditor independence.   In protecting the shareholders and the general public the SOX Act is intended to improve the transparency of the financial reporting.   Financial reports are to be certified by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) creating increased responsibility and independence with auditing by independent audit firms. In discussing the SOX Act, we will focus on how this act affects the CEOs; CFOs; outside independent audit firms; the advantages and a

For nonpublic companies auditing guidance are issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, AICPA. Prior to PCAOB, AICPA served as the primary governing body of public accounting profession. Since the roles have changed with PCAOB regarding the auditing standards for public companies, the AICPA is still developing standards for the nonpublic companies. The organization has developed four fundamental principles that govern an audit conducted in accordance with GAAP. The principles are:

INTRODUCTION There has been considerable interest in recent years in the role of the audit committee as a key corporate governance mechanism. Corporate governance committees and regulators around the world have addressed the need for effective audit committees, with many requiring that listed companies must have a committee (European Union (EU) 8th Company Law Directive, 2006; Smith Report, 2003; United States (US) Congress, 2002). Recognising that the existence of a committee does not guarantee that the committee will be effective, attention has moved to the composition and activities of audit committees. Recommendations have focused on the independence and expertise of committee members and the frequency of committee