Audit

Just hours after losing his heavyweight crown to crafty Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey came home to find his wife waiting for him at the door.

Looking for some certainty in an often-uncertain field, public companies are increasingly disclosing auditor agreements that place a monetary cap on any liabilities that may arise from accounting problems.

Chief audit executives face a number of challenges in attempting to comply with regulatory statutes, according to a survey conducted by data analysis firm ACL Services Ltd. in cooperation with the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu announced that it will establish a new group -- Deloitte Asean -- to spearhead organization expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.

PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that its new Japanese accounting firm, PwC Aarata, has completed the necessary regulatory steps to open for business July 1. PwC announced in May that it would be opening a new firm in the country after its audit partner in Japan received major penalties for poor supervision of its staff.

At the Deloitte Annual World Meeting in Singapore, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu chief executive William G. Parrett said that better audits and further regulatory changes aimed at improving transparency are needed to tackle corporate fraud, build stronger capital markets and sustain Deloitte businesses over the long term.

A California state Senate committee canceled a hearing on a bill to allow out-of-state accountants to provide tax services in the state without first notifying the state's Board of Accountancy.

Federal Reserve Board Governor Mark W. Olson has been appointed the new chairman of the five-member Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for a term running until 2010.

California officials are starting to consider making changes to accounting reforms the state adopted in the wake of Enron Corp.'s collapse.

A joint initiative by FASB AND AICPA is seeking feedback on proposed enhancements to the FASB's standard-setting procedures that would determine whether the Board should consider differences in accounting standards for private companies within Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Former shareholders of Tyco International Ltd. have been given the go-ahead to sue the company and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A former chief financial officer for a small Virginia bank has been ordered back to work under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's whistleblower protections.

The Auditing Standards Board is issuing a new standard on auditing internal controls. By adopting definitions from Auditing Standard No. 2 of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the standard will make audits of public and private companies more similar."This standard is important because it requires the auditor to communicate with management those areas of their internal control system that are not up to par," said AICPA vice president of professional standards and services Chuck Landes. "We want to make it clear that management has a responsibility for not only their financial statements but their internal control systems, and they are responsible to take appropriate action with respect to any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that the auditor may identify."

Ernst & Young Global Ltd. announced that Mitchell & Titus LLP, the country's largest minority-owned accounting firm, is expected to join as a member firm this October.

After a six-month vacancy, the Securities and Exchange Commission is zeroing in on a new chairman for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, according to published reports.

Deloitte Tax LLP announced an agreement to sell its Corptax software unit to MLM Information Services LLC. About 1,000 corporations and partnerships use the tax software.

The new risk assessment standards are all about getting back to basics, said expert Hiriam Hasty while speaking at the New York State Society of CPAs' annual Accounting and Auditing in the Nonpublic Environment Conference.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a status report with the U.S. Court of Appeals, saying that it will again ask for public comment on its independence proposal for the boards of most mutual funds.

For the first time, Securities and Exchange Commission information about companies and mutual funds is now fully searchable online.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's top auditor offered some suggestions for the third year of life under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, while speaking at the 25th Annual Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Reporting Institute Conference on June 8.