The role of professional associations

Public confidence in the professionalism of auditors is precariously low, thanks to the Enron, WorldCom, and other well-publicized audit failures. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act now places greater restrictions on the ability of CPA firms to provide both auditing and consulting services to the same clients and moves a number of professional activities once performed by the AICPA to the newly created Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which will operate with public money and under tight supervision from the SEC.