Audit & Accounting

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox has said that the agency is leaning towards opening another public-comment period on its stalled governance rules for mutual funds.

KPMG International has appointed Lord Michael Hastings to a new position as KPMG's global head of corporate social responsibility.

In an exchange of correspondence, where the irony couldn't have been not lost on any of the authors, the Government Accountability Office offered 14 recommendations to improve the internal controls of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, composed of leaders from charitable organizations, has offered additional recommendations to Congress and the nonprofit sector as part of its continuing effort to strengthen the accountability of the nation's 1.3 million charitable organizations.

Companies are fighting more than just the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act -- according to published reports, the whistleblower protections outlined under the law are also coming under fire in court.

Reuben E. Price & Co. Public Accountancy Corp., a small firm based in San Francisco, has been censured by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for failing to take action after one of the firm's clients issued an annual report that appeared to be, but was not, audited.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the board's recommended ethics and independence rules for auditor independence, tax services and contingent fees.

PricewaterhouseCoopers announced plans to bring more than 300 new jobs to the Tampa Bay in the next two years as part of a new knowledge services organization.

The International Federation of Accountants has released its 2006 handbook of standards.

With an advisory panel poised to formally propose that the Securities and Exchange Commission relax the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for some public companies, the panel's chairman is seeing audit troubles of a company on whose board he serves dragged into the spotlight.