Audit

Pope Francis has appointed Libero Milone, the former chairman and CEO of Deloitte & Touche Italy, as the first auditor general of the Vatican, where he is expected to oversee a clean-up of the scandal-scarred Vatican Bank.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against the government technology contractor Computer Sciences Corporation, its former CEO and several finance executives, accusing them of manipulating financial results and concealing significant problems about the company’s largest and most high-profile contract, as well as ignoring basic accounting standards to increase reported profits.

U.S. state and local governments will have to report billions of dollars in health-care liabilities on their balance sheets under an accounting change aimed at improving disclosure of retiree benefits.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has voted unanimously to approve two new standards that it believes will significantly improve the accounting and financial reporting by state and local governments for postemployment benefits other than pensions, primarily retiree health insurance.

The digital edition of the June 2015 issue of Accounting Today is now available.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued a paper examining potential changes to standards involving the use of specialists by auditing firms and is looking for public comments.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice asking for comments on the effect of the new revenue recognition standards on taxpayers’ methods of tax accounting.

The accountant who signed off on phony audits of Bernard Madoff’s firm for decades became the fourth person tied to the $17.5 billion fraud to avoid prison after aiding prosecutors.

The U.S. Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has released a study criticizing the quality of employee benefit plan audits performed by CPAs, finding that serious deficiencies in 39 percent of the audits are putting the benefit plans and 22.5 million participants and beneficiaries at risk.

The International Accounting Standards Board has proposed a set of enhancements to the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released a proposed accounting standards update to simplify the accounting for measurement-period adjustments in business combinations.

The Center for Audit Quality has premiered an online video series, “Profession in Focus," featuring interviews with leaders in the profession, starting with Deloitte’s new CEO, Cathy Engelbert.

We can see a bigger picture and look further out into the future than those of you who fight your daily battles down in the trenches.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Deutsche Bank AG with filing misstated financial reports during the height of the financial crisis that failed to take into account a material risk for potential losses estimated to be in the billions of dollars, and Deutsche Bank agreed to pay a $55 million penalty to settle the charges.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has released nine new and updated practice advisories that provide guidance to internal auditors and chief audit executives on sustaining a comprehensive quality assurance and improvement program.

BDO grabbed the most new SEC audit clients among large firms in the first quarter of 2015, while RBSM led in overall gains.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released an accounting standards update that makes targeted improvements in the disclosure requirements for insurance companies that issue short-duration contracts of typically one year or less.

A post-implementation review of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s standard addressing ownership interests within a company’s subsidiary found that the 2007 standard has achieved its purpose and provides useful information to users of financial statements, although there is some room for improvement.

Baruch College in New York brought together the former chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Bob Herz, and the former chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, Sir David Tweedie, last month to discuss the evolution of accounting standards and the convergence process.

New York University Stern School of Business has announced a new one-year, full-time Master of Science in Accounting that will begin accepting qualified college graduates to start in the fall semester 2016. This program will satisfy the 150-credit-hour education requirement needed as a prerequisite for New York State’s CPA certification.