The US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has released portions of two of its previously private inspections of PwC US, after the PCAOB found that the firm had not sufficiently "addressed certain criticisms in the reports to the PCAOB's satisfaction."
The criticism of PwC's actions relate to inspections published in March 2009 and August 2010, and the firm was given the statutory 12 months to improve on the areas concerned before these areas were made public.
Some of the criticisms made public included the firm failing to obtain sufficient competent evidential matter to support is audit opinion in four audits and questions over the firm's quality controls with respect to auditing management's estimates and fair value determinations.
In its response to the release of the report, PwC said that "full compliance with PCAOB standards is the top priority of our practice," and said PwC had provided its auditors with enhanced audit tools, training and additional technical guidance to promote more consistent audit execution.
The statement also noted that the PCAOB had explained that "it is not unusual for an inspection to include non-public criticisms of several aspects of a firm's system of quality control" and that the decision to make some of the criticisms public did not "signify anything about the merits of any additional efforts a firm may have made to address the criticisms after the 12 month period."
This is the second time such inspection documents have been made public, following a public a release of a report criticising Deloitte in 2011
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