Post by jcline on Feb 10, 2006 22:38:52 GMT -4
U.S. audit watchdog stresses accountability to SEC
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The acting chairman of America's audit industry watchdog board, which has been sued by critics seeking to shut it down, said on Friday the board is accountable to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bill Gradison, acting head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit filed this week by conservative policy activists, who have charged the PCAOB is unaccountable to the public.
The SEC approves "the board, its bylaws, ethics code, standards and rules," Gradison told reporters at a conference.
"The SEC is the appellate authority for PCAOB enforcement actions and public disclosure of accounting firms' quality control deficiencies," said Gradison, a former nine-term congressman.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington by the Free Enterprise Fund, a group headed by conservative activist Mallory Factor, and Beckstead and Watts LLP, a small Henderson, Nevada, accounting firm.
The plaintiffs' legal team includes Kenneth Starr, the former U.S. independent counsel who investigated President Clinton's extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky.
The action argues that the PCAOB violates separation of powers principles as a semi-government agency lacking proper checks and balances and that the board is unconstitutional.
It also says the board's members should be appointed by the White House with Senate review. At present, they are appointed by the SEC, with consultation from the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department. The SEC's five commissioners are appointed by the White House with Senate review.
The suit is the latest attempt by business lobbyists and activists to roll back recent investor protection regulations that have been attacked by business as costly and intrusive.
After a rash of corporate accounting scandals, the PCAOB was set up under 2002's Sarbanes-Oxley law to police the once self-regulating audit business dominated by the Big Four accounting firms: KPMG [KPMG.UL], Deloitte & Touche [DLTE.UL], PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC.UL] and Ernst & Young [ERNY.UL].
An SEC spokesman declined to comment.
today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=governmentFilingsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060210:MTFH89970_2006-02-10_18-21-49_N10310564:1
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The acting chairman of America's audit industry watchdog board, which has been sued by critics seeking to shut it down, said on Friday the board is accountable to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bill Gradison, acting head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit filed this week by conservative policy activists, who have charged the PCAOB is unaccountable to the public.
The SEC approves "the board, its bylaws, ethics code, standards and rules," Gradison told reporters at a conference.
"The SEC is the appellate authority for PCAOB enforcement actions and public disclosure of accounting firms' quality control deficiencies," said Gradison, a former nine-term congressman.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington by the Free Enterprise Fund, a group headed by conservative activist Mallory Factor, and Beckstead and Watts LLP, a small Henderson, Nevada, accounting firm.
The plaintiffs' legal team includes Kenneth Starr, the former U.S. independent counsel who investigated President Clinton's extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky.
The action argues that the PCAOB violates separation of powers principles as a semi-government agency lacking proper checks and balances and that the board is unconstitutional.
It also says the board's members should be appointed by the White House with Senate review. At present, they are appointed by the SEC, with consultation from the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department. The SEC's five commissioners are appointed by the White House with Senate review.
The suit is the latest attempt by business lobbyists and activists to roll back recent investor protection regulations that have been attacked by business as costly and intrusive.
After a rash of corporate accounting scandals, the PCAOB was set up under 2002's Sarbanes-Oxley law to police the once self-regulating audit business dominated by the Big Four accounting firms: KPMG [KPMG.UL], Deloitte & Touche [DLTE.UL], PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC.UL] and Ernst & Young [ERNY.UL].
An SEC spokesman declined to comment.
today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=governmentFilingsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060210:MTFH89970_2006-02-10_18-21-49_N10310564:1