Happenings at the Board of Directors' December meeting.Following are some of the more significant actions and events that took place at the AICPA AICPA See American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Board of Directors' meeting Dec. 5-6, 2002: * Kathy G. Eddy, chair of the Special Committee on State Regulation, reviewed the committee's mission, membership and activities to date. An environmental scan of state legislative, regulatory and executive activity associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act See SOX. is under way. Six major issues of concern identified by the committee are: uniformity, scope of services, auditor rotation, composition of state boards state boards Examinations administered by a US state board of medical examiners to license a physician in a particular state; these examinations play an ever-decreasing role in state medical licensure, as these bodies now rely on standardized national examinations of accountancy, peer review and ethics enforcement. * Auditing Standards Board In the United States, the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) is the senior technical committee designated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to issue auditing, attestation, and quality control statements, standards and guidance to certified public projects related to Sarbanes-Oxley were discussed. Task forces have been established to address internal control, audit committees, quality control and other issues (document retention, concurring partner reviews, foreign affiliate issues and attorney letter amendments). * The board was informed that at the invitation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (or PCAOB) (sometimes called "Peekaboo") is a private-sector, non-profit corporation created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a 2002 United States federal law, to oversee the auditors of public companies. , representatives of the SEC Practice Section met with the PCAOB PCAOB Public Company Accounting Oversight Board , which was seeking historical information about the section's peer review process. The PCAOB is formulating its inspection program for auditors of financial statement issuers in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. * Changes being considered by the Peer Review Board were highlighted and board members provided their input. The changes are designed to improve peer review and narrow the gap between what peer review is and what the expectation of it is. * An update on CPA (Computer Press Association, Landing, NJ) An earlier membership organization founded in 1983 that promoted excellence in computer journalism. Its annual awards honored outstanding examples in print, broadcast and electronic media. The CPA disbanded in 2000. 2Biz showed that as a result of many improvements, the Web site has enjoyed positive feedback and an increase in registered users (see related article on page 6). * The Tax Division reported on efforts to create a legislative proposal that would provide small businesses and practitioners some relief from the "workload compression" problem, while not losing an unacceptable amount of government revenues. The board encouraged the Tax Division to forge ahead with its proposal. Important Update on SEC Rulemaking At press time, the SEC adopted final auditor independence rules. A small firm alternative for partner rotation is included. For details, visit www.aicpa.org/sarbanes/secproposesrules.asp. |
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