By overseeing audits for all member companies, stock exchanges would be in the best position to assess quality differences across audit firms.
"This went on prior to our being engaged in 1999, and when you have fraud going on a long time, it's hard to find because it has become the norm," said Bruce J. Dunn, the partner responsible for overseeing audits of the organization.
He will also oversee audits of state and local agencies and authorities.
A partner from India, Sharmila Karve, was named the new head of auditing for the firm and has appointed a new team of seven to oversee audits in India.
The bill stops short, however, of forcing audit firms to rotate their clients every few years, a requirement that is now being mooted in Britain.The bill will set up a new board to oversee audits of public companies, with the power to investigate and fine auditors.
Under the banner of greater transparency, the committee that oversees audits of city operations has recommended that its meetings be televised.
In December, the AI Now Institute at New York University, a group that includes Microsoft and Google employees, argued that government agencies need greater power to "oversee, audit, and monitor" these technologies, and called for "stringent regulation" of face recognition tools in particular.
The Sarbanes bill, which would create a new agency to oversee audit firms, seemed even more likely to pass the senate yesterday, but it would have to be reconciled with an already-passed House bill.
From the perspective of the policy and compliance personnel interviewed the data support the requirement for a specific body to oversee auditing.
As drafted, the act included audit firm rotation, but thanks to heavy lobbying by accounting firms, it was watered down to require only the rotation of the manager from the audit firm overseeing the audit.
Public life 2008: member of the mayor of London's Forensic Audit Panel, overseeing an audit of City Hall finances; 2008: head, Conservative Councils Innovation Unit; 2006-present: Conservative leader, Hammersmith & Fulham council; 2003-06: leader of the Conservative opposition, Hammersmith & Fulham; 1996-2003: councillorve councillor, Hammersmith & Fulham.
