Another Take on Auditors and Compliance Violations

auditors

Occasionally strange things happen. So when an auditor friend of mine called me to say he believes this proposal for auditors to look for compliance violations is actually easier than most people suspect, I started taking notes — because an auditor defending this idea is a rare thing indeed. The proposal, from the Public Company…

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PCAOB Compliance Proposal Draws Heat

pcaob

Comment letters have begun to arrive for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s proposal to have auditors look for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. So far the idea has plenty of critics — although plenty of that criticism is stuff compliance officers will like to hear. The PCAOB’s proposal is to require…

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PCAOB Blasts Audit Firm Deficiencies

pcaob

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is taking audit firms to task this week, issuing a special report about the most recent round of PCAOB inspections that found an “unsettling trend” of ever-more deficient audits — results that the PCAOB chair blasted as “absolutely unacceptable.”  “These findings are absolutely unacceptable, and audit firms must make…

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More on Auditors and Compliance Violations

auditors

Today let’s return to that proposal to have audit firms look more aggressively for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. One of  my spies in the audit world recently provided me a glimpse into his firm’s preliminary discussions about this idea — and their concerns are well worth compliance and internal audit professionals’…

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PCAOB and Compliance Violations, Part II

pcaob

Today I want to revisit last week’s proposal from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board that audit firms should look more aggressively for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. There are compelling arguments about why this might be a bad idea, which compliance and internal audit professionals need to consider closely. To understand…

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PCAOB Eyes Compliance Violations

pcaob

Audit firms may soon be under more pressure to look for potential fraud and other legal or compliance violations at their client companies, and then to report any such findings to the company’s board and senior management promptly.  So says a new proposal unveiled today by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Right now the…

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PCAOB Lists 2023 Inspection Priorities

pcaob

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has released its list of priorities for audit firm inspections in 2023, in case any internal audit and financial compliance teams want to understand where your auditor is feeling the pressure and how that pressure might fall through onto you. The PCAOB releases such a list every spring after…

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Why Internal Auditors Are Annoyed

internal auditors

Today I want to circle back to that proposal from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board about third-party confirmations in financial audits, a seemingly reasonable idea that in practice has alienated legions of internal auditors. We should take a few minutes to understand why that is. For those who missed our first post on this…

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Confirmations Contretemps in Audit World!

confirmations

The internal auditing world is in an uproar this week over a proposed new auditing standard from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board — one that throws some notable shade at the internal audit profession, and prompted the Institute of Internal Auditors to declare that it is “deeply concerned” about the idea. The proposed standard…

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Ex-KPMG Boss Fined on Insider Tip Scandal

kpmg

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has fined the former vice-chair of KPMG’s audit practice $100,000 for his role in a scandal where KPMG offered jobs to PCAOB employees in exchange for confidential information about upcoming inspections of KPMG audits. You might remember the story from several years ago. The feds indicted three KPMG partners…

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