| Center for Audit Quality Survey of Audit Committee Members (3/18/08) |
The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) was founded in order to promote a robust dialogue about issues of importance to the U.S. capital markets for the benefit of investors, the public company auditing profession and the markets as a whole. As part of that mission, the CAQ recently commissioned a survey to examine an essential participant in the preparation of audited financial statements: audit committees.
Since the passage of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX), audit committee members have been required to play an increasingly pivotal role in ensuring the reliability and relevance of financial statements. However, to this point, it has been difficult to ascertain the shared views of this important group on vital issues such as the quality of the audit process since the passage of SOX; the risk of material misstatements and fraud; the value of the changes mandated under SOX; and areas of needed improvement to the audit process.
This survey touches on all these areas and more. Representing the responses of over 250 audit committee members, including committee chairs and financial experts representing small‐, medium‐ and large‐cap companies, this survey offers a unique perspective on these critically important issues. The survey offers a valuable snapshot of how audit committee members view the changes of the past several years, the state of the audit today, and provides a useful platform for ongoing discussions about how best to strengthen audit quality for the future.
