The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will be setting up regional offices around the country to be closer to the "action" in pursuing its oversight responsibilities.

At his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on October 21, PCAOB Chairman William McDonough revealed plans to set up regional offices in Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco, in addition to its main offices in New York and Washington, DC.

PCAOB spokesperson Christi Harlan indicated that those regional locations were selected because of the proximity to the clusters of offices of public accounting firms that audit public companies.

The Dallas office will handle issues arising in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico.

The San Francisco office will cover California, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona.

The Atlanta office will handle Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Each of the three regional offices are expected to be up and running in January 2004, and will be staffed with 10-15 people in each office.

As many as six to eight regional offices are expected to be set up around the country.