Audit

After months of speculation, Google rolled out a beta version of Google Finance on March 21, its own site bringing together pertinent information from across the Web about companies and mutual funds.

In the latest turf battle to come to light between the two groups, the American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy recently squabbled over NASBA's interest in the details of public company audit inspection reports.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board released a statement aimed at simplifying the accounting for servicing assets and liabilities, such as those common to mortgage securitization activities.

Risk consulting and internal audit services provider Protiviti has teamed with enterprise software company diCarta to provide a contract management compliance solution for Protiviti clients.

The Internal Revenue Service's 2005 IRS Data Book is now available at the agency's Web site.

A business group including some of the country's largest companies said that corporate governance practices are improving and that the percentage of companies adopting pay-for-performance measures for senior executives continues to rise.

A paper from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board has outlined key differences between the needs of users of state and local government financial information and users interested in for-profit businesses.

CPA and business advisory firm Hill, Barth and King, has merged in Presque Isle Capital Management with its financial planning unit HBK Sorce Advisory LLC.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board named Laura Phillips and Jennifer Rand to the position of deputy chief auditor.

E&Y RESIGNS AS A.P. PHARMA AUDITOR: Big Four firm Ernst & Young has resigned as auditor to Redwood City, Calif.-based pharmaceutical concern A.P. Pharma.A federal filing did not state a reason for E&Y's resignation, and a replacement has not been named.

Several columns back, we wrote about a recent report from the CFA Institute called A Comprehensive Business Reporting Model: Financial Reporting for Investors. This monograph is the long-awaited update of the influential Financial Reporting in the 1990s and Beyond.The new report is authored by a committee comprising a veritable who's who of highly experienced financial analysts, and speaks forthrightly about the highly limited usefulness of current generally accepted accounting principles financial reports. (The full report is available free at http://cfapubs.org/ap/issues/v2005n4/toc.html.)

Although they are supporting new audit rules that give public companies the option to report the elimination of a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting, the Big Four accounting firms have called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue more detailed guidance for making these disclosures.At issue: the Public Company Accounting Standards Board's new Auditing Standard No. 4, which recently won SEC approval. That standard allows the management of audited companies to voluntarily commission their auditors to report whether a previously reported material weakness continues to exist - an option that accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers described as "a useful tool" for providing the public with assurance that a previously reported internal control problem no longer exists.

A federal review of 13 major contracts awarded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina pointed to poor communication as the reason behind the waste and mismanagement of some supplies and services that went unused.

The Office of Thrift Supervision approved an application from H&R Block Inc. to organize a federal savings bank in Kansas City, Mo.

Retail drugstore chain CVS Corp. said the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal probe into how the company accounted for a 2000 transaction.

New York's Attorney General filed a $250 million fraud suit against H&R Block Inc., accusing the tax prep giant of steering hundreds of thousands of clients to investment retirement accounts with costs higher than what they would earn back.

Bankruptcy filings rose 10 percent last year, to a record 1.78 million, according to figures released by the federal court system.

After 16 years, the executive director of the Securities and Exchange Commission will step down to pursue opportunities in the private sector.

Three consumer credit reporting agencies announced that they have created a new credit scoring system to simplify the loan process for lenders and borrowers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking public comment on the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's proposed ethics and auditor independence rules concerning independence, tax services and contingent fees.