Conversations with audit committee chairs
As part of the PCAOB’s strategic goal of enhancing transparency and accessibility through proactive stakeholder engagement, the PCAOB released, on March 24, 2022, “2021 Conversations With Audit Committee Chairs,” which summarizes feedback received from outreach conducted during 2021. This report provides a summary of perspectives from approximately 240 audit committee chairs at U.S. public companies whose audits the PCAOB inspected. The report focuses on the following topics: required communications between the auditor and audit committee, discussions outside of required communications, auditor strengths and areas for improvement, PCAOB inspection reports, quality control systems at audit firms, auditor’s use of technology, and information outside of the financial statements including ESG and non-GAAP measures.
New advisory groups
On Jan. 31, 2022, the PCAOB announced the creation of two new advisory groups: the Investor Advisory Group and the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group. These advisory groups have been created to enhance investor and stakeholder engagement and will help the PCAOB gather input from stakeholders and investors on how to improve audit quality. With this announcement, the PCAOB issued a request for public comment to solicit input on the proposed structures of the two new groups and a request for nominations. Comments and nominations were due Feb. 28, 2022.
At an open meeting on March 29, 2022, the PCAOB approved the charters for the two new advisory groups. Also at the meeting, the PCAOB voted to dissolve the Standards Advisory Group.
The PCAOB expects to announce appointments early this spring and anticipates that public meetings will begin shortly thereafter.
New board members
Erica Y. Williams was sworn in as chair of the PCAOB on Jan. 10, 2022, and will serve until Oct. 24, 2024. Most recently a litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Williams previously spent more than a decade in various roles at the SEC and served as special assistant and associate counsel to President Barack Obama.
On Jan. 3, 2022, Anthony C. Thompson was sworn in as a PCAOB board member. His term will run through Oct. 24, 2022. Thompson joins the SEC from his position as the executive director and chief administrative officer of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Prior to his time at the CFTC, Thompson held senior positions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and served in the United States Air Force for 32 years.