Nieuws 08 mei 2008

Conceptadvies over toekomst accountantsberoep VS

De commissie onder voorzitterschap van voormalig SEC-voorzitter Arthur Levitt, die het Amerikaanse ministerie van Financiën moet adviseren over de toekomst van het accountantsberoep, heeft een conceptrapport uitgebracht.

De instelling van de commissie is een van de initiatieven van minister van Financiën Paulson om de Amerikaanse kapitaalmarkt concurrerender te maken.

In het rapport doet de commissie de volgende aanbevelingen:

Human capital

1. Implement market-driven, dynamic curricula and content for accounting students that continuously evolve to meet the needs of the auditing profession and help prepare new entrants to the profession to perform high quality audits.
2. Improve the representation and retention of minorities in the auditing profession so as to enrich the pool of human capital in the profession.
3. Ensure a sufficiently robust supply of qualified accounting faculty to meet demand for the future and help prepare new entrants to the profession to perform high quality audits.
4. Develop and maintain consistent demographic and higher education program profile data.
5. Encourage the AICPA and the AAA to jointly form a commission to provide a timely study of the possible future of the higher education structure for the accounting profession.

Firm structure and finances

1. Strengthen auditing firms' fraud detection and prevention skills and clarify communications with investors regarding auditing firms' fraud detection responsibilities.
2. Encourage greater regulatory cooperation and oversight of the public company auditing profession to improve the quality of the audit process and enhance confidence in the auditing profession and financial reporting.
3. Urge the PCAOB and the SEC, in consultation with other federal and state regulators, auditing firms, investors, other financial statement users, and public companies, to analyze, explore, and enable, as appropriate, the possibility and feasibility of firms appointing independent members with full voting power to firm boards and/or advisory boards with meaningful governance responsibilities to improve governance and transparency at auditing firms.
4. Urge the SEC to amend Form 8-K disclosure requirements to characterize appropriately and report every public company auditor change and to require auditing firms to notify the PCAOB of any premature engagement partner changes on public company audit clients.

Concentration and competition

1. Reduce barriers to the growth of smaller auditing firms consistent with an overall policy goal of promoting audit quality. Because smaller auditing firms are likely to become significant competitors in the market for larger company audits only in the long term, the Committee recognizes that Recommendation 2 will be a higher priority in the near term.
2. Monitor potential sources of catastrophic risk faced by public company auditing firms and create a mechanism for the preservation and rehabilitation of troubled larger public company auditing firms.
3. Recommend the PCAOB, in consultation with auditors, investors, public companies, audit committees, boards of directors, academics, and others, determine the feasibility of developing key indicators of audit quality and effectiveness and requiring auditing firms to publicly disclose these indicators. Assuming development and disclosure of indicators of audit quality are feasible, require the PCAOB to monitor these indicators.
4. Promote the understanding of and compliance with auditor independence requirements among auditors, investors, public companies, audit committees, and boards of directors, in order to enhance investor confidence in the quality of audit processes and audits.
5. Adopt annual shareholder ratification of public company auditors by all public companies.
6. Enhance regulatory collaboration and coordination between the PCAOB and its foreign counterparts, consistent with the PCAOB mission of promoting quality audits of public companies in the United States.