After Congress warned audit regulators to stand down on a possible mandatory rotation requirement, it appears the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board may be steering its attention to the audit committee.
In a podcast interview with Compliance Week, the PCAOB’s newest member, Jeanette Franzel, says the board is still looking broadly at how to get auditors to think and act more independently and more skeptically. The PCAOB has been collecting feedback on a controversial concept release that looks for ideas on how to improve auditor independence and skepticism and whether term limits or mandatory rotation would do the trick. After sifting through more than 630 comment letters and two days of roundtable discussions – and after the House Financial Services Committee threatened the board with legislation to bar auditor rotation – now the board is looking more closely at the audit committee, says Franzel.
