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Republican legislators plan to close the American audit regulator, which was founded as a result of the Enron scandal more than two decades ago, as part of a reform set designed to issue the Donald Trump deregulation program.
The proposal to eliminate the Independent Council for the Accounting of Public Companies was published late Friday by the management of the Chamber of Financial Services Committee, for inclusion in the Tax and Giant Expenditure Bill examined by the Congress.
Below billA levy from listed companies and brokers that finance the PCAOB would be abandoned and the organization’s responsibilities would be integrated into the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The PCAOB was created to supervise audit standards and carry out regular inspections of companies which audit American public companies after the collapse of Enron in 2001, the gaps exhibited the previous self -regulating regime.
Accounting firms have rubbed against the militant leaders of President Erica Williams, under which the agency has imposed new difficult standards and extracted record fines in application actions.
Any effort to eliminate the agency is likely to respect the resistance of democrats and cannot receive full approval from audit firms.
The Center for Audit Quality, which represents the largest companies, asked that the agency be more responsive to accounting firms, but previously ceased to request its elimination.
“Surveillance models can evolve, but what should not change is the responsibility of the profession towards capital markets and the need for a system that supports the maintenance of high quality of audit standards,” said Julie Bell Lindsay, CAQ director, Julie Bell Lindsay on Saturday.
Although PCAOB employees can have the possibility of transferring their roles to the dry, they should in many cases make salary reductions because the organization is not subject to government remuneration scales.
Critics argued that such a decision would considerably disrupt the audit inspection regime.
But Christina Ho, a member of the PCAOB board of directors who opposed several Williams signature initiatives, said that dry wages could be higher than those of many government agencies. “The dry has no difficulty attracting and preserving talents,” she said.
The Committee’s draft legislation also caresses the funds not allocated in the context of a green modernization program of $ 1 billion for housing under the law on the reduction of inflation, Joe Biden’s historic climate legislation and reduces the budget of the Consumer Finance Protection Office.
It faces procedural obstacles, however. The full committee of financial services will take into account the legislation in the coming days, but if it will be included in the bill on taxes and expenses, known as the reconciliation bill, will depend on negotiations within the republican management in the Chamber and the Senate and if it is considered a budgetary measure.
Sandy Peters, head of world advocacy at the CFA Institute, a professional organization for investors, said that the creation of the PCAOB has led to spectacular improvements in the quality of audit.
“The most important and effective capital markets need a solid, apolitical and independent audit regulator and an accounting standard setter,” she said. “If capital training is a priority for administration, it disrupts this.”
