Audit

RSM McGladrey Inc. announced a Labor Day deal to acquire Phoenix-based real estate tax firm, Gaughan & Nahom PLC.

The global managing partner of KPMG's Audit & Advisory Services Center has been given the additional role of global chief information officer for KPMG International.

More than 900 companies have used accelerated vesting schedules to avoid an estimated $8 billion in costs, according to a Bear Stearns report issued last week.

FLOTEK INDUSTRIES ENGAGES UHY: Flotek Industries, a Houston-based manufacturer and marketer of innovative specialty chemicals, and downhole drilling and production equipment, dismissed UHY Mann Frankfort Stein & Lipp LLP as its auditor and engaged UHY LLP as its replacement.In a filing, Flotek said that UMFSL resigned as the company's auditors as a result of joining UHY, an accounting firm consolidator with which UMFSL had an affiliation.

On July 6, 2006, SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins spoke at the 11th Annual Conference of the International Corporate Governance Network (see www.sec.gov/news/speech/2006/spch070606psa.htm).The ICGN is a U.K. nonprofit that aims to "develop and encourage adherence to corporate governance standards and guidelines, and to promote good corporate governance worldwide." What a great audience to come before to display how this most powerful regulatory agency is committed to protecting the capital markets!

The Auditing Standards Board recently issued eight new auditing standards, Nos. 104-111, collectively referred to as the risk assessment standards. The new standards will change many of the planning and risk assessment procedures performed during an audit (though most of the steps performed throughout the audit process remain largely the same).Implementation of the new standards should increase the effectiveness of financial statement audits, as auditors will now be required to:

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board recently issued its inaugural audit practice alert, warning auditors to be on the watch for problems with the timing of, and the accounting for, stock-option grants."Auditors planning or performing an audit should be alert to the risk that the issuer may not have properly accounted for stock-option grants and ... may have materially misstated its financial statements," the alert said, alluding to recent investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service into whether companies routinely backdate, spring-load or otherwise manipulate stock-options grants to top executives.

"The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator. This means that he should be able to justify every purchase he makes and each price he pays by impersonal, objective reasoning that satisfies him that he is getting more than his money's worth for his purchase."

Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service for possible tax reporting violations, according to a published report.

China's government has told its auditors to maintain a clean image after one of their colleagues reportedly died of alcohol poisoning while on an auditing assignment.

After nine years, a federal report says that college tuition tax credits aren't necessarily providing the boon originally intended for poorer families.

The New York State Society of Public Accountants, the oldest state accounting association, representing approximately 30,000 CPAs, has offered certain suggestions regarding pending legislation in Congress affecting estate planning-- specifically emphasizing the pressing need for certainty and ease of administration with respect to the transfer tax.

The widening options-timing scandal contributed mightily to a record-setting number of large U.S. corporations filing late financial reports for the second quarter, according to a study from market research firm Glass Lewis & Co.

The executive vice chair of operations for KPMG LLP will take on the additional position of regional chief operating officer for the Americas region of KPMG International.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will host a Boston forum on auditing in the small business environment.

One of the aspects of the Internet that many I and many others love is its interactive nature. Using a news search engine's push technology, news summaries on accounting firms are sent to me daily.

OPENTV RETAINS GRANT THORNTON: OpenTV Corp., a San Francisco-based developer of software used by cable and satellite TV operators to offer their subscribers interactive content and services, named Grant Thornton as its new independent accountant. Grant replaces Big Four firm KPMG.In a federal filing, OpenTV said that there were no disagreements with KPMG during the fiscal years ended Dec. 31, 2004 and 2005, and through June 29, 2006, on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedures.

Members of the military serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat zones can now put money into individual retirement accounts, even if they received tax-free combat pay, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

An old colleague of mine from Melbourne, Australia, sent me some information that his country's financial planners have just implemented new guidelines to help prevent conflicts of interest and to improve confidence in the financial planning sector.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Diego Tomás Ruiz, a long-time business executive with Spanish-language media group Univision Communications Inc., will serve as its new executive director.