- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Maria L. Murphy2022-12-22T17:40:00
For the second straight year, PwC fared the best among inspection results released by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) for the largest U.S. audit firms, including each of the Big Four, Grant Thornton, and BDO.
The results, posted Monday, cover the 2021 inspection cycle. Only two of PwC’s 56 audits reviewed (3.6 percent) returned deficiencies, a slight increase over last year’s rate (1.9 percent) but still a far cry from the 30 percent the firm was at in 2019.
Second place among the Big Four firms went to Deloitte (13 percent), followed by EY (21.4 percent) and KPMG (25.9 percent). EY’s 2021 inspection results ended the firm’s prior trend of declining deficiencies in each year from 2017-20, while KPMG’s results improved for a fourth consecutive year.
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Three of the Big Four audit firms saw increases to the deficiency rates observed in their latest Public Company Accounting Oversight Board inspection reports, while KPMG had its results redacted.
A steady increase in the rate of deficiencies observed by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board during audit inspections the past three years has the head of the agency calling on firms to “make changes to turn things around.”
PwC Australia exited eight partners, including its former chief risk and reputation officer, following an investigation into the sharing of confidential government tax policy information at the firm.
Erica Williams was reappointed to a second term as chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board after an ambitious first three years in the role that have seen the agency work to update many of its standards deemed outdated.
Software company Autodesk said it won’t restate several years of financial statements following an audit committee investigation into potential accounting misconduct.
Los Angeles-based bank holding company Broadway Financial Corp. disclosed in a public filing weaknesses discovered in its internal control over financial reporting because of training shortfalls.
