By Edith Orenstein, FEI Financial Reporting Blog - Earlier today (Sept. 26), the U.S. Treasury Department’s Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession (ACAP), co-chaired by former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt and former SEC Chief Accountant Don Nicolaisen, voted 14-1 to release its Final Report. (See Draft Final Report that was approved at the meeting.)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, called in briefly at the beginning of the meeting to thank the committee, its chairs and observers from the SEC, FASB and PCAOB.

Subcommitte chairs noted the final report was largely unchanged from the earlier (July) draft report, and described those few items on which major changes were made. Over 30 recommendations were made in the final report, although the committee did not reach a consensus on any recommendation dealing directly with litigation reform/liablity reform.

Additional questions were posted to the ACAP cochairs at a press conference following the ACAP meeting.

Read more details from the ACAP meeting and press conference here.