Committee Spotlight
By Audrey Gramling
The Auditing Section of the AAA is successful because of the many members who agree to serve on one or more of the Section’s committees. This new column will profile the activities of one of the Section’s committees. In this issue of The Auditor’s Report, the Auditing Standards Committee (ASC) is profiled.
The Charge of the Committee
The charge of the ASC is to foster interaction between the Auditing Section and auditing standard-setting bodies, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the Auditing Standards Board (ASB), the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), and the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). To accomplish this charge, the committee will:
- Issue comment letters on selected proposed audit standards issued by the PCAOB, ASB, IAASB, IIA, and others. The committee will prepare such letters for submission to the appropriate standard-setter, posting on the Section web site, and publication in The Auditor's Report.
- Sponsor a panel session at the Midyear meetings to expose attendees to issues facing auditing standard-setters.
- Provide input to Section members on the auditing research implications of projects that are on the agendas of these standard-setting bodies.
- Monitor auditing research for indications of problems with existing auditing standards.
- Stimulate research activities on issues that are expected to be of interest to these standard-setting bodies.
- Where possible, provide ad hoc reports at meetings of these standard-setting bodies on research findings that suggest potential changes in standards.
- Communicate the progress and results of committee activities to Auditing Section members in appropriate ways, including, but not limited to, the presentation of a brief report at the Section's annual business meeting
Activities in 2007-2008
The 2007-2008 Committee Members included:
Thomas M. Kozloski, Wilfrid Laurier University (Chair)
Robert Allen, University of Utah (Past Chair)
Randy Elder, Syracuse University (Vice Chair)
Robert J. Ramsay, University of Kentucky
Sandra Shelton, DePaul University
Ed O’Donnell, University of Kansas
Jay Thibodeau, Bentley College
One of the biggest contributions the committee makes is to write comment letters to standard-setters and others that have issued Exposure Draft documents. During 2007-2008 the ASC wrote the following comment letters, which are available at the Section’s website (http://aaahq.org/audit/asc.htm):
- Comment Letter in Response to “Preliminary PCAOB Staff Views – October 17, 2007. An Audit of Internal Control That is Integrated with an Audit of Financial Statements: Guidance for Auditors of Smaller Public Companies.”
- Comment Letter in Response to “PCAOB Rulemaking Docket Matter No. 025: Proposed Auditing Standard - Engagement Quality Review.”
Current Issues in Auditing has recently announced that the journal will begin to publish ASC comment letters.
The ASC also organized a panel session for the Auditing Section Midyear Meeting. The panel session was held on Friday, January 18, 2008 at the Auditing Section Meeting in Austin, Texas. The panel focused on current and forthcoming standards relating to engagement quality review. The panel session was moderated by Tom Kozloski. Panelists included Greg Scates (PCAOB), David Evans (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and Bill Messier (University of Nevada – Las Vegas).
The ASC in 2008 – 2009
Randy Elder assumed the role of Chair of ASC for this fiscal year. Jim Bierstaker (Villanova University) will be Vice-Chair for the upcoming year and will Chair the ASC in fiscal 2009-2010. Bob Allen, Bob Ramsay, and Jay Thibodeau will rotate off the ASC, and Susan Parker (Santa Clara University), Larry Abbott (University of Memphis), and Steven Firer (Monash University – South Africa) will join the committee.
If you are interested in joining the ASC, please contact Audrey Gramling (agramli1@kennesaw.edu). If there are particular exposure drafts that you would like to see the ASC comment on, please let Randy Elder (Rjelder@syr.edu) know of your interest. If you cannot join the committee on a full time basis but would like to participate in the comment letter process for a particular exposure draft, please contact Audrey Gramling (agramli1@kennesaw.edu).
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