SEC rushes to hire SOA staff

✍ Scribed by Robert W. Rouse

• Book ID: 102296243
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 34 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1044-8136
• DOI: 10.1002/jcaf.20029

✦ Synopsis

You have to be middle-aged to remember the title song from the movie Midnight Cowboy, "Everybody's Talkin'." One could replace talkin' with hirin' to characterize the plights of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In order to accomplish the expanded mission mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Commission is attempting to hire hundreds of additional staff. The SEC had to return part of its budget allocation because of the inability to do this and has contracted with a private employment agency to aid in the process.

The Office of the Chief Accountant has been allocated some 60 staff positions and has a current staff in the high 30s. When this columnist served as the academic fellow in the OCA in 1991-1992, the staff numbered in the 20-25 range.