The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled an open meeting for Tuesday, March 9, to consider adopting an auditing standard for internal control over financial reporting. The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. in the East Room of the Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Avenue N.W., in Washington, DC.

The auditing standard, "An Audit of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting Performed in Conjunction with an Audit of Financial Statements," addresses both the work that is required to audit internal control over financial reporting and the relationship of that audit to the audit of the financial statements.

Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and the Securities and Exchange Commission's related implementing rules, requires the management of a public company to assess the effectiveness of the company's internal control over financial reporting. Section 404 of the Act, as well as Section 103, directs the PCAOB to establish professional standards governing the independent auditor's attestation, and reporting on, management's assessment of the effectiveness of internal control.

The meeting is open to the public and will be webcast at www.pcaobus.org. The text of the final standard will be posted to the Web site as soon as possible after the Board's meeting.