Board to Consider Adopting Auditing Standard on Evaluating Consistency of Financial Statements

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled an open meeting for Tuesday, January 29, at 9:30 a.m., in the Board’s open meeting room at 1666 K St. NW, Washington, DC.

The Board will consider adopting an auditing standard, Evaluating Consistency of Financial Statements, and related amendments to the Board’s interim standards regarding the auditor’s responsibilities to evaluate and report on matters relating to the consistency of the financial statements. The Board also will consider adopting amendments to its interim standards related to the hierarchy of generally accepted accounting principles.

The Board proposed in April 2007 changes to its auditing standards in light of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB) issuance of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 154, Accounting Changes and Error Corrections, and Proposed Statement of Financial Accounting Standards, The Hierarchy of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

The Board's proposed standard and related amendments to the Board's interim standards establish requirements for the auditor’s evaluation of the consistency of financial statements, in light of the new accounting standard. The Board also proposed to remove the hierarchy of generally accepted accounting principles from its interim standards in light of the FASB’s proposal to incorporate the hierarchy into the authoritative accounting literature. This hierarchy currently resides only in the auditing standards.

The meeting will be open to the public and Webcast via a link on the PCAOB’s Web site (www.pcaobus.org) that will be made available the day of the meeting. The meeting also will be available via podcast later in the day.