PCAOB Chairman James Doty shot the breeze with the SEC for awhile today, speaking about, among other things, how the Board would handle this boatload of Chinese filers who don't seem to know their asses from their elbows when it comes to accounting and their auditors who are similarly clueless. Doty assured the Commission that a meeting with the Chinese could happen at any moment and that seemed to be good enough for everyone, as the Board's new budget was approved unanimously. Of the $23 million in extra funds, Reuters reports, "Much […] will go toward expanding the PCAOB's inspections program so it can increase the number of international inspections it performs," which should go a long way in finding countries more likely to play ball with the inspection process. [Reuters]
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Is Citi One of the Issuers in the PCAOB’s Inspection Report of KPMG?
- Caleb Newquist
- October 18, 2010
The long-awaited PCAOB inspection report of KPMG came out on Friday and while we were excited for this unveiling, the Board managed to issue the report at around 4 pm on Friday. Since the Board lacks any sense of timing whatsoever, we opted to punt on our respective post until today because well, we’re human and not a soulless blogging robot as likely perceived by TPTB at the PCAOB.
It’s worth mentioning that this is the first PCAOB report that has been issued since the SEC’s final rule on the inspections that allows audit firms to postpone the release of the report simply by taking issue with any of the findings. Since any appeal could reportedly delay the report by “30 to 100 days,” it’s safe to assume that, with a report date of October 5th, KPMG didn’t have a beef with the findings. You could also assume that since the SEC is taking a peek at these reports now, there’s going to be a ten day lag on the release of the report to allow the Commission enough time to give it their extra-special sniff test.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand –
KPMG had eight issuers noted in the Board’s inspection report and the first two are doozies. “Issuer A” runs approximately two pages and includes failure on testing of “allowance for loan losses” to “test[ing] the issuer’s estimates of fair values of financial instruments” and goodwill impairment.
“Issuer B” is a little more interesting since one of the failures the Board found was related to deferred tax assets which makes us wonder if this is Citi, since analyst Mike Mayo was loudly questioning the bank’s treatment of its DTA. Francine McKenna not-so-subtly solicited guesses on Friday as to who this “bank” might be (even though no issuer is identified as such) but it does make us wonder.
The Board cites run-of-the-mill failures for the rest of the issuers (e.g. fair value testing, pension plan testing, failure to confirm cash[!]) and the House of Klynveld’s response letter was cordial and anticlimactic.
But if you’re KPMG, do you really care what the PCAOB thinks when you’ve got an adorable gnome-ish looking analyst giving you the tepid thumbs-up (despite not knowing your name)? That’s the only endorsement we would need.
PwC Out of the Running for This Year’s “Worst Performance By a Big 4 Audit Firm”
- Caleb Newquist
- July 21, 2015
The PCAOB, bless their hearts, released a forgettable inspection report from PwC today. The deficiency […]
Who Wants a $10,000 Scholarship from the PCAOB?
- Caleb Newquist
- July 6, 2011
Any accounting students that happen to have an above-average aptitude for accounting or auditing will be happy to know that the PCAOB has been given the go-ahead to award fifty-two $10,000 scholarships for the 2011-2012 academic year. There are some conditions, however, including:
• Be enrolled in a bachelor’s or master’s degree program in accounting
• Demonstrate interest and aptitude in accounting and auditing
• Demonstrate high ethical standards
• Not be a PCAOB employee or a child or spouse of a PCAOB employee
In addition, we think it makes sense that anyone with “Ernst” or “Young” in their name will be forced to undergo a more rigorous examination of their qualifications. Also anyone named “Arthur Andersen” should be immediately ineligible. If you have other conditions you’d like to see attached to these scholarships, leave them below.
And here’s the list of schools:
Brigham Young University
Central Washington University
CUNY Bernard M Baruch College
DePaul University
Eastern Michigan University
Eastern University
Fairfield University
Florida State University
George Washington University
Georgia Southern University
Golden Gate University
Hope College
Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis
Indiana Wesleyan University
Kean University
Lewis University
Louisiana State University and A & M College
Michigan State University
Middle Tennessee State University
Missouri State University
North Carolina State University
Northern Illinois University
Nova Southeastern University
Rhode Island College
Tulane University
University of Alabama
University of Colorado-Denver
University of Connecticut
University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Hartford
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Maryland-University College
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Missouri-Columbia
University of North Carolina-Charlotte
University of North Carolina-Greensboro
University of North Texas
University of Notre Dame
University of Oregon
University of Pittsburgh
University of Southern California
University of Southern Mississippi
University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Dallas
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Walsh College of Accountancy & Business
Weber State University