SEC: “The nation’s main audit regulator is getting a full makeover.
Five new members were appointed Tuesday [12-12-17] to oversee the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a regulator of auditors who examine the books of publicly traded companies.
The picks include William Duhnke, a Republican Senate aide who will be the board’s chairman, and James Kaiser, a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner, marking the first time an auditor has joined the regulator from a Big Four accounting firm.
The changes show how the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new chairman, Jay Clayton, is putting his imprint on the PCAOB. Mr. Clayton, whose agency oversees the board, didn’t reappoint any of the board’s members, signaling a break with an era during which the PCAOB sometimes clashed with the SEC and the accounting firms over the pace and emphasis of its rule making.
James Doty, the board’s exiting chairman, pushed rules that forced auditors to disclose more about their roles and critical judgments, which the audit profession often opposed…
The SEC has never before declined to reappoint PCAOB members who were eligible to serve another term, said Lewis Ferguson, one of the departing board members.”
–Dave Michaels, “Government Cleans House at Audit Regulator,” The Wall Street Journal online, Dec. 12, 2017 06:59pm