Board to Consider Adopting Audit Documentation Standards, Rules for Oversight of Non-U.S. Firms

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled an open meeting for 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, June 9, in the Board’s 8th floor meeting room, 1666 K Street N.W., in Washington, DC. The Board is scheduled to consider:

• Adopting an auditing standard that would establish general requirements for documentation the auditor should prepare and retain in connection with engagements conducted pursuant to the standards of the PCAOB. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 expressly directs the Board to establish auditing standards that require registered public accounting firms to prepare and maintain, for at least seven years, audit documentation "in sufficient detail to support the conclusions reached" in the auditor's report. The standard was proposed on November 12, 2003.
• Adopting a rule to set forth the terminology the Board will use to describe the degree of responsibility that the auditing and related professional practice standards impose on auditors. This rule was proposed on October 7, 2003.
• Adopting rules related to the oversight of non-U.S. public accounting firms. Section 106(a) of the Act provides that any non-U.S. public accounting firm that prepares or furnishes an audit report with respect to any U.S. public company is subject to the Act and rules of the Board. The rules set out a framework under which, with respect to non-U.S. firms, the Board could implement the Act's provisions by relying, to an appropriate degree, on a non-U.S. system. The rules were proposed on December 9, 2003.

The Board received and considered comments on the proposed standards and rules. The comments can be viewed under Rulemaking on the Board’s Web site at www.pcaobus.org.

The meeting is open to the public and will be webcast on the Board’s Web site.