Is this a good time to be an Auditor?

According to a February 26, 2009 article in the Wall Street Journal, President Obama’s budget request for 2010 includes a 13% budget increase for the Securities and Exchange Commission to over one billion dollars. The new administration is pushing enforcement in light of recently uncovered frauds and the government bank bailout. Higher enforcement levels could be good for the auditing profession. 

Though this could be a boon to our profession, will higher levels of spending by the SEC and other government enforcement agencies really reduce fraud and increase the transparency of financial reporting. One idea that has been expressed is for the SEC and PCAOB to mandate that only licensed CPAs can work on public company audits. This would ensure that experienced and qualified individuals would be auditing the books of public companies in America. This would also help to bring the accounting profession in line with other professions which do not allow unlicensed individuals to practice in the profession.  This would increase the quality of public company audits without the need to increase the government deficit.

Some companies would complain that being required to use licensed CPAs who have the training and experience to conduct the financial audit would increase the cost of the audit. In the short term this might be true, but long term it would encourage more people to get the education, experience and qualifications to obtain the CPA certification? As more qualified people are licensed, costs will come back down.

 

Robert K Minniti, CPA, CFE, Cr.FA, CFF, MBA

www.minnitiaccounting.com

www.linkedin.com/in/robertminniti

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