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Online Issues > May 2002 > Publisher's Information
| MAY 2002 VOLUME 193, NUMBER 5 | ||
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Highlights A REVIEW OF BIG 5 INDEPENDENCE SYSTEMS TO CONTINUE Following the Public Oversight Board’s (POB) decision to terminate its operations March 31, the SEC made alternative arrangements to ensure the board’s previously planned examinations of the largest firms’ auditor independence programs take place. The reviews will assess the design, implementation and operating effectiveness of each audit firm’s provisions for complying with the commission’s rules, which took effect February 5, 2001. A new group composed of the board’s former executive director, Jerry D. Sullivan, and staff will act in place of the POB. The Transition Oversight Staff will engage experts, including some from the firms’ peer review staffs, to evaluate how closely those firms are adhering to SEC rules. The interim group will perform these functions under an arrangement between the SEC and the AICPA SEC practice section’s executive committee. The reviews will commence immediately, and by October 31 the group will issue a final report on the adequacy of each firm’s independence regimen. Last year, in keeping with the commission’s directives, the firms established databases to monitor auditors’ and their relatives’ investment and employment relationships to ensure that none of them are with audit clients. Under SEC rules, the existence of such relationships could restrict the scope of services an audit firm may provide to its clients. The report the interim group issues on each firm will specify
To assure the impartiality and completeness of the group’s reviews, the commission said Donald J. Kirk, a former POB vice-chairman and former chairman of the Financial Accounting Foundation—FASB’s and GASB’s parent organization—had agreed to examine the review findings and issue a public assessment. HEDGING REGULATIONS CLOSE POTENTIAL TAX LOOPHOLE The Treasury Department in March issued final rules governing hedging transactions. The new provisions discuss several types of hedges, indicating which of them the Treasury and IRS will—and which they will not—classify as tax hedges. For example, the IRS no longer will allow employers a tax benefit for using investments to hedge their deferred-compensation obligations; companies will owe tax on their earnings from such investments. |
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Editorial Advisers Kenneth D. Askelson, James Bean, Robert C. Beheler, Phyllis Bernstein, John C. Boma, Jacob R. Brandzel, Steven J. Brown, Jolene C. Brucks, Thomas F. Burrage, Linda Burt, J. Gregory Bushong, R. Patrick Cargill, Benson J. Chapman, Susan M. Comeau, Rosemarie T. Dunn, Thomas Emmerling, Elizabeth Fender, Penny A. Flugger, Barton C. Francis, Robert J. Freeman, John S. Gibbons, Alan Glazer, Randi K. Grant, Patrick T. Hanratty, James E. Hunton, Frank J. Kopczynski, Jeffrey B. Kraut, Dennis B. Kremer, William F. Laurie, Alan Levin, John Lewison, Joseph P. Liotta, Mano Mahadeva, Benjamin F. Mathews, Patrick Michael McDonough, Anita Meola, Debra Mitchell, Roger H. Molvar, Brenda Morris, Bea L. Nahon, Lyne P. Noella, Edward T. Odmark, Stanley Person, Mary P. Ricciardello, Mark L. Richardson, Wesley Riemer, Marshall B. Romney, David Satava, Peggy Scott, Carolyn Sechler, Gary Shamis, Ivan J. Sotomayor, Alan Steiger, Paul C. Sullivan, Keith Tobias, Gary R. Trugman, Robert Willens, Jon Arthur Wise, Mark A. Yahoudy |
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The scope and methodology of its
review.