SunTrust Banks Inc. has fired three finance executives and reassigned another for failing to treat accounting problems raised by the company's independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP with adequate seriousness, failing to correct errors, and not advising the auditors of the errors, according to a SunTrust statement.Bank officials made the moves after discovering “numerous errors” in the loan loss-allowance calculations for the first two quarters, CFO.com reported, adding that the company would restate earnings upward by over $31.6 million for the first two quarters.

The stress of meeting the requirements for corporate financial accountability is taking a toll on confidence and client ratings within the accounting industry, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2004 Audit Firm Performance Study(SM) released today. The study, which measures audit firm performance in the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, is based on interviews with 1,007 audit committee chairs and 944 chief financial officers. The study finds a significant amount of angst among audit committee chairs and CFOs in the industry.

With time running out for company's to prove that their internal controls are sound, financial staffers and outside accounting firms are maxed out as the year-end deadline looms, the Washington Post reported.The new rule, brought about by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, has thousands of public companies and their external auditors scrambling to certify the strength of internal controls.Controls are the backbone of a company's financial systems, the Post reported.

Results of a recent examination of government data by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse show that the Internal Revenue Service has performed fewer corporate audits in the first six months of fiscal 2004, the Associated Press reported.Despite claims by the IRS that it would ramp up audits in an attempt to crack down on tax cheats, TRAC survey reported Monday that the IRS performed 7,794 corporate audits from October 2003 through March 2004, down 26 percent from the pace in fiscal 2003, the AP reported, adding that hours spent auditing corporate tax returns was

Approval of 2005 Budget - The Board approved a budget of approximately $152.8 million for calendar year 2005. The budget will allow the Board to continue to fulfill its statutory mandate under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee the auditors of public companies in order to protect the interests of investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, fair, and independent audit reports. The budget supports the continuation of an aggressive hiring effort in order to satisfy the PCAOB’s mandates under Title I of the Act.

Marriott International Inc. has revealed that Ernst & Young informed the company about nonaudit work it performed for hotel employees in China that could raise independence issues.

The Big Four accounting firms have been given six months to address deficiencies in their Canadian auditing procedures, with emphasis placed on more timely assessments of auditors, stricter requirements on documentation and more monitoring of audit quality control, CBC Business News reported.The deadline and recommended changes follow inspections of Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, CBC Business News reported. Further inspections will be done early in 2005 to ensure the changes are being made.

Auditors already know that they must be on the lookout for fraud, but they may be uncomfortable playing the bad guy with high-powered corporate clients.Clients should understand up front that accounting and auditing firms are not only risking their reputation, but also their survival if they don't make finding fraud the central goal of their auditing services.Michael P.

With audit fees skyrocketing and a highly complex portion of Sarbanes-Oxley coming due for implementation, many companies are leaving Big Four accounting firms for smaller audit shops where they can get more attention at less cost, USA Today reported.