Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (also known as the PCAOB) is a private-sector, nonprofit corporation created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee accounting professionals who provide independent audit reports for publicly traded companies. The PCAOB's responsibilities include the following:

• registering public accounting firms;
• establishing auditing, quality control, ethics, independence, and other standards relating to public company audits;
• conducting inspections, investigations, and disciplinary proceedings of registered accounting firms; and
• enforcing compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.

When Congress created the PCAOB, it gave the SEC the authority to oversee the PCAOB's operations, to appoint or remove members, to approve the PCAOB's budget and rules, and to entertain appeals of PCAOB inspection reports and disciplinary actions. You can find SEC orders and other releases concerning the PCAOB in the "Regulatory Actions" section of our website under "PCAOB Rulemaking."

For more information about the PCAOB, please visit the PCAOB's website. There you will find links to the PCAOB rules and rulemaking initiatives, information about auditing standards, releases concerning enforcement, reports of inspections, and much more.

To file a complaint with the PCAOB, pass along a tip, or provide information that may be relevant to a PCAOB inspection, please visit the PCAOB's Center for Enforcement Tips, Complaints and other Information. Otherwise, you can reach the PCAOB as follows:

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
1666 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006-2803
Phone: (202) 207-9100
Fax: (202) 862-8430
Email: info@pcaobus.org
Web: www.pcaobus.org

 

http://www.sec.gov/answers/pcaob.htm