Announced yesterday, PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams, who just got appointed to a second five-year term last year and was supposed to keep the PCAOB’s big seat warm until October 2029, will be leaving the PCAOB on July 22.
Short on recognition specific to Williams and more about how great the PCAOB is now, the press release is full of PCAOB greatest hits under her tenure such as:
- Securing complete access to inspect and investigate firms headquartered in China for the first time in history and bringing record enforcement actions against China-based firms.
- Launching a concentrated effort to improve audit quality that helped lead to significant improvements in deficiency rates across audit firms.
- Increasing transparency in inspection reports and getting those reports out nearly a year sooner so that investors, audit committees, and others have access to valuable information more quickly.
- Taking more formal actions to modernize standards and rules than any Board since the PCAOB was created, finalizing seven projects, covering 24 rules and standards.
- Delivering record-setting sanctions, sending a clear message that there will be strong consequences for anyone who puts investors at risk. [Ed. note: The big sanctions in recent years have been for “cheating,” in other words audit staff sharing answers to internal training, often at the same time as their firm was getting perfect, zero-deficiency scores on PCAOB inspections.]
- Partnering with staff to make the PCAOB a better place to work, leading to a 30-percentage point increase in the number of PCAOB staff who say they would recommend the PCAOB as a great place to work.
- Reimagining stakeholder outreach, reconstituting the Investor Advisory Group and the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group and creating the first-ever standalone Office of the Investor Advocate.
- Awarding the highest amount of merit-based scholarships to accounting students in PCAOB history.
Not mentioned in the press release is what Wall Street Journal reported: she left at the behest of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins. They don’t have much more info than that, sure it’ll come out at some point.
In my opinion Erica Williams was the worst PCAOB Commissioner in its history.
She was appointed because of her pigmentation and genitalia.
She never had a clue what put investors at risk.
Good bye and good riddance.
Just curious.
Are you the same George Weinbaum that was subject to a PCAOB Bar order on 12/20/2023?
It is precisely this extent of ghosting that necessitates her removal. Short on specifics and long on bias
OWNED!
Just curious. Are you naturally stupid or do you work hard at it?
You are absolutely right. Add her to the list of black women, including Kamala and KBJ, taking advantage of DEI to obtain positions they aren’t competent for. Hopefully this ends this failed DEI experiment. Sadly, her incompetence did a tremendous amount of damage to capital markets, our professional, and individual practitioners. Our profession needs to be much stronger, and not allow such a hack to be appointed again. Actually, we must demand changes to the structure of the PCAOB. I fear the debate over the existence of the PCAOB has obscured fundamental reforms needed at the PCAOB. Look at the Board- there is one Commissioner, Christiana Ho, who is competent and is s CPA with appropriate experience. The rest are lawyers and bureaucrats, with no background to regulate the CPA profession. The most flagrant is George Botic, who is a career PCAOB employee, who retired and appointed to Board to replace Duane Desparte, who was the CPA with the best public company audit experience. This must be reformed, so that actual experienced CPA’s regulate the audit industry. No other profession would allow what we do.
Sour grapes perhaps?
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against certified public accountant Robert Allan Boyle (R. Boyle) and his audit firm, Boyle CPA, LLC (Boyle CPA), based in Red Bank, New Jersey, for failing to comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board standards while conducting audits of public companies. Both R. Boyle and Boyle CPA have agreed to settle the charges.
Wendy you unwittingly proved Robert’s point via your naiveté. It’s more affordable to settle than to fight, and why Erica needs to get out of Dodge.
This lack of intellectual curiosity is exactly why we can’t have these racist-led DEI initiatives. The world should reward others via WORK ACCOMPLISHMENTS and not WOKE ACCOMPLISHMENTS!!
Thank you, and I will only say I would comment except I am unconstitutionally barred from doing so! This is another principle that is currently being litigated elsewhere, and will surely lead to the SEC being overturned and rebuked…again. My point stands, as does the person above. No one is arguing against the merits of the points raised.
You are absolutely correct!
She probably refused to shut up about the Epstein files.
Erica Williams manufactured all of “accomplishments”. When you move the goal posts, you will find more audit irregularities.
The stupid will read a firm’s subpar PCAOB report and conclude CPA firms don’t know how to audit. The stupid ignore the fact that virtually none of these failed audits result in restatements. This is why this site’s insight about the PCAOB results are such a joke.
You mean like BDO’s 86% deficiency rate? That type of rate is just absurd.
I bet only a couple of those failures resulted in a restatement.
Erica was a bad DEI hire and she harmed the profession. She should be arrested and thrown in jail.
Planning to file yet another frivolous lawsuit anytime soon?