PCAOB reproposes requirements on disclosure of engagement partner and certain participants in the audit

Published on: 06 Dec 2013

On January 31, 2013, the PCAOB extended the comment deadline for this proposal to March 17, 2014. Please see our news story for more information.

On December 4, the PCAOB issued for public comment a reproposal1 that would amend PCAOB auditing standards to require disclosure of the following information in the auditor’s report on public companies and broker dealers (as outlined in the PCAOB’s press release on the reproposal):

  • [T]he name of the engagement partner who led the audit for the most recent period, and
  • [T]he names, locations, and extent of participation (as a percentage of the total audit hours) of other public accounting firms that took part in the audit, and the locations and extent of participation of other persons (whether an individual or a company) not employed by the auditor who performed procedures on the audit.

The PCAOB is reproposing the amendments to obtain additional feedback on the following:

  • The usefulness of the proposed disclosures.
  • Costs of the proposed amendments and the effects of the proposed amendments on competition.
  • The reproposal’s technical changes related to the disclosure of information (e.g., changing the threshold for disclosure of information related to the other participants in the audit from 3 percent of total audit hours to 5 percent of the total audit hours).
  • Whether the proposed amendments should apply to audits of emerging growth companies.

Comments on the reproposal are due by February 3, 2014.

____________________

1 PCAOB Proposal, Improving the Transparency of Audits: Proposed Amendments to PCAOB Auditing Standards to Provide Disclosure in the Auditor's Report of Certain Participants in the Audit. The original proposal, issued in October 2011, would have required, among other things, disclosure of the name of the engagement partner and disclosures of certain other participants in the audit.

Accounting Journal Entries Image

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.