PwC objects to PCAOB report faulting its audits

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) claims USA’s Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)'s 2006 inspection report of PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2005 audits, released last week, is mistaken in finding faults with the firm for not taking the proper steps to support its audit opinion for six of its clients.

'We have concluded that, in each instance, our original procedures were sufficient to support our audit conclusions and the opinion rendered at the time,' PwC wrote in a letter to the PCAOB dated 26 September, published in the auditor overseer's report.

Despite its objection to the PCAOB's findings, PwC responded to the criticism by adding documentation to its working papers for one of the audits which the regulator had included in the report, citing significant deficiencies.

In response to other audit deficiencies by PwC cited in the PCAOB report, PwC said one of the PCAOB's findings was ‘factually incorrect’ and in defense of an audit the PCAOB said lacked proper testing, PwC said it had used ‘professional judgment’.

Further reading:

PCAOB finds errors with KPMG's audits

Naming and shaming on the audit agenda