Audit

The U.S. Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission have published tips to assist fiduciaries of employee benefit plans in reviewing conflicts of interest of pension consultants.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has reportedly reached an agreement to pay about $41 million in civil penalties to settle claims that it over-billed the government for travel-related expenses.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson announced that he would step down at the end of the month.

Three years after the guilty verdict that effectively destroyed the firm, the Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of Arthur Andersen for shredding documents related to its audits of energy giant Enron Corp.

Following the completion of an internal review, insurer American International Group Inc. finally filed its repeatedly delayed 2004 annual report.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been after public companies to tighten their internal controls as mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley, needs to do some tightening itself, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will meet next month to discuss topics related to the implementation of PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 2, which deals with internal control audits.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has released a series of free reports for chief internal audit executives and their staffs intended to provide guidance in assessing technology-associated risks and implementing best practices.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released guidance related to attest engagements regarding Extensible Business Reporting Language data furnished under the Securities and Exchange Commission XBRL Voluntary Financial Reporting Program on the Edgar System.

The chairman of a House appropriations subcommittee with oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate reported SEC budget shortfalls.

While Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley says management is responsible for establishing and reporting on a company's system of internal controls, more than half of 329 companies reporting control deficiency disclosures did so because their external auditors identified and reported those weaknesses, according to a report by the Financial Executives Research Foundation.

Expressing optimism that the bipartisan bickering over a litany of Capitol Hill issues would be suspended at least temporarily, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said that a finding a solution for the wheezing 70-year-old Social Security program would be the test of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to come together.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board revoked the registration of a New York public accounting firm and disciplined three of its partners for concealing information from the board and submitting false information in connection with a PCAOB inspection.

The president's panel studying tax overhaul options isn't expected to recommend major changes to the estate tax, according to published reports.

Legislators and the public should be aware that carry-over basis problems of estate tax repeal could be a nightmare, according to the American Association of Attorney-CPAs.

The federal government's current fiscal business model isn't sustainable and major changes need to be made, the Comptroller General told a group of New York CPAs here.

More than 14 percent of large public companies will receive failing grades on their internal controls, according to the latest Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 internal control disclosure research by AuditAnalytics.com.

Responding to clients' need to manage massive amounts of electronic information, the forensic and dispute services practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP has launched AFTnet Services, a scaleable solution that links data collection, management, discovery and investigation.

Companies complying with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley should, among other things, have internal experts develop the plan for documentation and testing; should maintain open and continuous communication between management and the internal and external auditors; and should include the external auditors in internal audit training sessions, according to a new report detailing 404 best practices.

The College for Financial Planning, based here, is offering advisor training for a financial planning designation that focuses on issues related to working with seniors -- a fast-growing age group that it says will represent 20 percent of the population within the next 25 years.