Washington (Dec. 11, 2003) -- In a keynote speech at the American Institute of CPAs National Conference on Current SEC Developments, the chairman of the AICPA called on AICPA members to drive change.
“It is not enough to embrace change,” S. Scott Voynich told the audience of nearly 2,000 CPAs, regulators and reporters during remarks made yesterday. “We have to drive it.”
“In so many areas, our profession is involved in change,” Voynich said. “In some areas, we are helping to drive it. In some, we are helping to manage it. In some cases, we are responding to change and trying to make it work more fairly and efficiently.”
He detailed a number of AICPA initiatives currently underway. Among them are an on-line Audit Committee Matching System to help match companies looking for qualified members for audit committees with AICPA members who have registered to serve on audit committees; a 136-page Audit Committee Toolkit; a “how-to” guide to assist audit committees in meeting the oversight responsibilities mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley; and a multifaceted anti-fraud program created in cooperation with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners that includes an Institute for Fraud Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition, the AICPA plans to launch the Center for Public Company Audits, which will serve as a guide for auditors of SEC registrants to help them meet SOX requirements, as well as a Special Committee on Enhanced Business Reporting that will work to establish a consortium of members from the investment and lending community, government, public and private companies, software developers, academia and accounting firms, with the goal of improving the quality and transparency of information used for decision making.
-- WebCPA staff
