On November 15th, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board approved its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan.
“The Board’s adoption of the strategic plan and accompanying budget paves the way for fulfilling our shared vision for the PCAOB,” said PCAOB Chairman William D. Duhnke. “I look forward to working with my fellow Board members and our talented staff to achieve the goals and objectives we’ve set forth.”
The PCAOB has four primary duties:
- Register public accounting firms that prepare audit reports for issuers, brokers, and dealers
- Establish or adopt auditing and related attestation, quality control, ethics, and independence standards
- Inspect registered firms’ audits and quality control systems
- Investigate and discipline registered public accounting firms and their associated persons for violations of specified laws, rules, or professional standards
Each year, the PCAOB develops a strategic plan, creating goals with a five-year outlook. In prior years, the plan was developed and updated based on input from top leadership within the PCAOB. This year, however, (as mentioned in our previous blog) the PCAOB’s five new board members engaged a strategic planning consultant, which hosted an anonymous public survey seeking views on the PCAOB’s strategic priorities.
“We received an incredible response. Hundreds weighed in, including dozens of investors, audit committee members and directors, academics, foreign audit regulators, auditors, and others.”
The board also sought feedback from their employees, not just their leadership.
“Our outreach revealed thoughtful consideration of the current state of audits and the audit profession, the evolving risk landscape, the rapidly changing environment in which we operate, and how we can improve our oversight activities and operations.”
And finally, after developing the strategic plan, the board published the draft and sought comments from the public on the specific goals and objectives that were laid out.
“We received thoughtful responses from various parties who have an interest in the PCAOB’s strategic direction or operations, including investors and our other stakeholders. Most responses supported our overall direction and we made several responsive changes to our plan based on the feedback received.”
The goals listed in the PCAOB’s 2018-2022 Strategic Plan are as follows:
- Drive improvement in the quality of audit services through a combination of prevention, detection, deterrence, and remediation.
- Anticipate and respond to the changing environment, including emerging technologies and related risks and opportunities.
- Enhance transparency and accessibility through proactive stakeholder engagement.
- Pursue operation excellence through efficient and effective use of our resources, information, and technology.
- Develop, empower, and reward our people to achieve our shared goals.
Approximately 1,900 public accounting firms are currently registered with the PCAOB. About 600 of those registered firms audit more than 12,000 issuers that file financial statements with the SEC. In addition, approximately 400 registered firms audit more than 3,350 SEC-registered broker-dealers.
For more information on these SEC registrants and/or public accounting firms, please email us at info@auditanalytics.com or call (508) 476-7007.