PCAOB Has an Extra $20 Million to Spend on Field Trips to China

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]