In a recent survey of public companies assessing views on Sarbanes-Oxley a decade after its adoption, Protiviti also asked companies what they think of the PCAOB's recent suggestions that mandatory rotation might improve auditing. Nearly half of all survey respondents agreed that rotation would have a positive impact. Among large accelerated filers, Protiviti said 47 percent of companies were in favor of rotation, and 60 percent of nonaccelerated filers agreed with the idea as well. Even Protiviti was taken back by the numbers. “These results are somewhat surprising as it can be expensive and time consuming to change external auditors, and such an action would represent a very substantial change in the external auditor arrangements for companies,” the firm noted in its report. “Further, the limited number of global network accounting firms significantly restricts rotation options." [CW, Earlier]
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The PCAOB Chairman Is in It for the Money
How’s this for awkward: Mary Schapiro makes $162,000 as the big chief at the SEC. The Chairman of the PCAOB makes $672,676 a year and board members get $546,891. And just so you know, B to the H to the O makes $400k.
The Berg says that, “Salaries for PCAOB members exceed the pay for most public officials to make the jobs competitive with the private sector,” which probably explains it but cripes. That’s good scratch for sitting in meetings all day and continually telling auditors how much they suck at their jobs.
The whole subject came up in the article because Schape and Co. are trying to find a permanent chairman to replace interim chair Dan Goelzer and two retiring board members.
The lead horse is Kurt Schact, the managing director of the CFA Institute’s Centre for Financial Market Integrity. Mr. Schact has a JD and BS in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. Candidates for the two soon-to-be vacated board seats include one CPA, Helen Munter (Deloitte) and two former SEC attorneys, Linda Griggs and John Sturc.
Does anyone see a problem here? Does anyone think for one minute, that the PCAOB will be better off with fewer auditors guiding the ship? There must not be a single qualified auditor in the entire universe that could possibly want to chair the PCAOB. Thankless job to be sure but at least the money is decent.
Anyway, the good news is that arguments for Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB will be heard at the SCOTUS next week. Maybe we’ll all get lucky and this appointment crap will become meaningless.
SEC Said to Consider CFA’s Schacht to Lead U.S. Auditor Board [Bloomberg]
See also: CFA Institute’s Schacht May Chair PCAOB [Web CPA]