In Non-Russia-Ukraine War News, KPMG UK Screwed Up Another Audit
Let’s take a break from what’s going on right now in Ukraine to tell you something we’ve written a lot about in recent years and that we enjoy writing about: KPMG UK being bad at auditing. While we await KPMG’s punishment for that whole Carillion debacle, the Financial Reporting Council announced on March 8 that […]
KPMG UK’s Piss-Poor Auditing Is Once Again Coming Back to Bite Them In the Ass
As the UK’s audit cops are kicking back and watching KPMGers throw each other under the bus and a former audit partner feign ignorance about documents being forged during a tribunal hearing on the clown show that was the firm’s auditing of Carillion, the Financial Reporting Council decided to give KPMG a small taste of […]
KPMG UK Already Gearing Up For Massive Punishment Over Carillion Audit Failures
“It is of course for the tribunal to reach a conclusion on the allegations as they relate to the individuals concerned. Nevertheless, it is clear to me that misconduct has occurred and that our regulator was misled. The misconduct that this tribunal will hear about over the coming weeks is disturbing and upsetting for me […]
SEC Got All Grinchy on Crowe, Four Partners for Bad Banana of an Audit
We interrupt your Christmas Eve merriment to bring you this press release from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which on Dec. 21 announced not-so-glad tidings about Crowe LLP’s audit team: The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed settled charges against national audit firm Crowe LLP, two of its partners, and two partners of a now-defunct audit […]
Those Who Know, Know BDO … Sucks at Auditing
So, the latest PCAOB inspection report of BDO USA is out, and man, it’s bad. You know it’s bad when even KPMG can do better. Well, at least according to the most recent available report, we’re still waiting on the suspiciously absent 2016 KPMG PCAOB inspection report. Anyhoo, back to BDO. They’re no strangers to […]
U.K. Watchdog Blasts PwC for ‘Incomplete, Inaccurate, and Misleading’ Audit of BHS
In a leaked Financial Reporting Council report, the U.K’s accounting watchdog hammered PwC for bungling the audit of BHS, which resulted in “incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading” statements being made about the now-defunct retailer’s financial situation just before it was sold for £1, according to Accountancy Age. The article states: According to the leaked report, which […]
PCAOB Says Audit Failures Are No Longer Audit Failures
So, today, this happened: Hanson says the PCAOB has moved away from using the phrase "audit failures" in the boilerplate parts of its inspection reports. #FEICFRI14 — Accounting Today (@AccountingToday) November 18, 2014 You'll recall earlier this year, we pointed out new-ish language in PCAOB inspection reports that clarifies the definition of an audit deficiency. […]
McGladrey’s PCAOB Inspection Report Is the Least Embarrassing Thing About McGladrey
We were too busy yesterday making AS5 jokes about KPMG to talk about McGladrey's 2013 PCAOB inspection report, which was released at the same time. McGladrey is used to warming the bench over Big 4 firms so we figured they could wait for us to get around to it. The news is pretty good, at […]
PCAOB Inspection Report Hands KPMG Its AS5
Oh, man. The last remaining Big 4 inspection report of 2013 was released by the PCAOB today and we are proud to be the first to tell you, KPMG did not come in last as the haters might have expected. For two of the 50 audits inspected, KPMG was not the primary auditor but just […]
The PCAOB Has Added Some Interesting New Language to Inspection Reports
While we were ragging on EY yesterday for taking it up the AS5 from the PCAOB, we happened to notice some interesting new language in the inspection report. Now, this is not surprising as the PCAOB clarifies itself often, but let's see what you think about this: Certain of the deficiencies identified were of such […]
EY Hits 50% Failure Rate on PCAOB Inspection, Gets a Grade of LOL on AS5
Today, the PCAOB released its latest inspection report on the firm formerly known as Ernst & Young. Now, before we get into that, let's get into a little history because everyone loves history, right? EY boasted an impressive failure rate of 35.7% in 2011, which was followed up by an even more impressive failure rate […]
PwC Slightly Better at Auditing This Year, Says PCAOB Inspection Report
Rejoice, people, PCAOB Inspection Report season continues! From PwC's fresh off the presses 2013 inspection report: The 2013 inspection of the Firm included reviews of portions of 57 audits performed by the Firm and reviews of the Firm's audit work on two other issuer audit engagements in which the Firm played a role but was […]
McGladrey’s Latest PCAOB Inspection Reveals McGladrey Is Not Grant Thornton
Well, the PCAOB is slowly but surely cranking out more 2012 inspection reports and today, McGladrey gets to celebrate an accomplishment: being better at auditing than Grant Thornton (though I suppose given GT's embarrassing audit failure rate, that isn't saying much). Not only that, they're slightly better than EY and only slightly worse than PwC. […]
One Guy at the PCAOB Thinks the PCAOB Should Consider Its Language
Aha! Pointy-headed professors aren't the only ones who think the PCAOB's use of the term "audit failure" is totally dramatic and possibly unnecessary. From the JofA: The PCAOB’s use of the term “audit failure” in its inspection reports of audit firms appears to have caused confusion and misunderstanding about the severity of inspection findings among […]
Is the PCAOB’s “Audit Failure” Rate Really a Little Dramatic?
Here's the deal. Last week, Mark Peecher and Ira Solomon published an opinion piece on CFO.com titled PCAOB’s ‘Audit Failure’ Rate Is Highly Suspect. Just so we know these guys might have some idea what they are talking about, Mark teaches accounting at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Ira is dean of the A. […]
Duh of the Day: One in Three Audits Fail, Per the PCAOB
Lodi dodi, we likes to party, we don't cause trouble, we don't bother nobody. This comes from Emily Chasan via CFO Journal: More than one in three audits inspected by the U.S. government’s audit watchdog were so deficient the auditors shouldn’t have signed off, an official said this week. Why do I feel like we […]
So BDO Isn’t That Good at Auditing Either, But Still Better Than Grant Thornton
Now this is just getting funny. And by funny I mean sad. The PCAOB has released its 2012 inspection report on BDO and the news isn't nearly as bad as it was for Grant Thornton so, well, there's that. Which really isn't much when you think about it but… hey… gotta take what you can […]
Don’t Worry Everyone, Deloitte Totally Has This Future of Audits Thing Down
Exhibit A: Deloitte works w/ global regulators to shape policy and standards to help develop audit of the future #GR2013 http://t.co/3oZLBxB7kc — Deloitte (@Deloitte) January 6, 2014 This is courtesy the Big 4 firm that brought you Parmalat, Bear Stearns, MG Rover, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker… you get the point. But hey, shit happens […]
If the PCAOB Thinks Firms are So Deficient, Can We Rely on Audits or Not?
A nearly 40% "deficiency" rate for the big firms according to the PCAOB is news to no one (at least no one around here) but let's look at this post by Emily Chasan in CFO Journal for WSJ anyway: The Big Number: 37.5% That’s the proportion of audits by large accounting firms found to have […]
PwC Wants the PCAOB To Get Better
PwC's November just got more annoying. According to the PCAOB's latest inspection, 41 percent of the 60 PwC audits inspected were not up to snuff, up from 37 percent last year. Issues called out by the PCAOB included failures to identify, or to address appropriately, financial statement misstatements, including failures to comply with disclosure requirements, as […]
Ernst & Young Settles a $2 Million Slap on the Hand With the PCAOB
And no, before anyone asks, this has nothing to do with Lehman. According to the PCAOB, Ernst & Young settled with the Board yesterday related to three EY audits of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation to the tune of $2 million, the largest civil penalty levied by the PCAOB to date. Note that a settlement doesn't mean […]
Here’s the Ernst & Young PCAOB Inspection Report for Your Reading Pleasure
Yesterday, we discussed Deloitte stinking up the joint with its PCAOB inspection report. While the firm, at large, probably puts out hundreds of quality audits, the PCAOB gumshoes found that 45% of audits stamped with a green dot had deficiencies. Today, the Board stuffed our stocking with Ernst & Young's inspection report and while it's not […]