Craig A. Etter, a tax audit lawyer in Tysons Corner, Va., with the law firm Greenberg Traurig, said that "the primary reason for doing one of these audit technique guides is to get auditors in the field to focus on what the I.R.S. national office thinks is a problem with noncompliance".
(The violation of accounting standards, as I explained in this column, involved shifting losses taken in 2008 to 2007. The company got its auditors to agree that was fine, despite the rules).
The board initially ordered him to repay all $20,392 of the public funds he got, once auditors found scads of expenses he had charged to the campaign, including dog food and liquor bought during the race, and sushi dinners and airline tickets bought months after the election.
And in some cases, the lighting that needs replacing is on very high ceilings and hard to get to, auditors were told.
Some other members of the five-person board voiced doubts about the concept, however, saying that the cost of getting new auditors up to speed on large companies every few years would burden both the company being audited and the accounting firms.
Instead the rules get lazy auditors off the hook by simply letting them obtain a letter from a company that says it isn't faking its numbers, says Carmichael, who notes auditors like weak rules, since they can use them as a defense when sued.
This week, SEC officials are in China trying to get Chinese auditors access to inspect such companies.
AMONG the many scapegoats blamed for the financial crisis, auditors got off lightly.
"What happened before our auditors got there is obviously an issue of concern," he said.
Ting's auditors got spooked.
