The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will increase its staffing by 50 percent next year, from 300 to 450, following the approval of a $152.8 million budget for calendar year 2005. The board expects to spend nearly two-thirds of the total budget on staffing, including salary, benefits and hiring expenses.
The majority of those new hires will be auditors who will inspect more than 1,300 public accounting firms who are registered to audit financial statements of U.S. public companies. Inspections began in 2003 with a limited sampling, but increased in 2004 and will increase again as a result of new staffing in 2005.
