PCAOB: Auditors ‘falling short’ on engagement quality reviews
By 
Kyle Brasseur2023-10-16T14:29:00
A new staff report issued by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) seeks to provide best practices for auditors amid observations of rising deficiency rates related to engagement quality reviews (EQRs).
The report, published Thursday, comes after the PCAOB found 42 percent of firms it inspected in 2022 had a quality control criticism related to EQRs. The number of U.S. global network firms with an EQR deficiency increased 33 percent from 2021 to 2022.
“Engagement quality reviews are an important investor safeguard during the audit process. Unfortunately, audit firms are increasingly falling short when performing this function,” said PCAOB Chair Erica Williams in a press release. “We urge audit firms and audit committees to read our EQR report so they can fully live up to their responsibility to protect investors against insufficiently supported audits.”
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