About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

Published 1 (2020-04-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaebac0001 and id is 1 raw text is: cAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 April 27, 2020 Mr. Michael Decker Vice President, Examinations American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Princeton South Corporate Center 100 Princeton South, Suite 200 Ewing, NJ 08628 GAO's Response to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' December 2019 Exposure Draft and Invitation to Comment, Maintaining the Relevance of the Uniform CPA Examination Dear Mr. Decker: This letter provides GAO's response to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) exposure draft and invitation to comment, Maintaining the Relevance of the Uniform CPA Examination. GAO promulgates generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS), which provide professional standards for auditors of government entities in the United States.1 GAGAS provides a framework for conducting high-quality audits of government awards with competence, integrity, objectivity, and independence. GAO generally agrees with the practice analysis's (PA) direction, including its focus on the knowledge and skills required of newly licensed certified public accountants (nICPA). However, we are concerned about the exposure draft's proposed changes to GAGAS exam content. In our opinion, government auditing knowledge and skills are critical for nICPAs. We believe that the Uniform CPA Examination (CPA Exam) should maintain the current content related to GAGAS. In our view, auditors that have recently taken or passed the CPA Exam are regularly staffed to governmental audit teams, and it is crucial for nICPAs to have an understanding of and be able to apply GAGAS independence and ethics requirements when conducting these audits. The public interest in government spending, the number of organizations required to comply with government auditing standards, and the quality issues in this area demonstrate the need for the AICPA to test potential CPAs in government auditing standards. We also encourage the AICPA to consider maintaining content related to government accounting standards. We believe that knowledge and skills in government accounting standards are critical for nICPAs. For state and local governments, the AICPA could consider focusing on fund accounting and how it differs from for-profit accounting. In addition, we strongly believe that the AICPA should include content in the exam related to basic concepts of federal accounting standards that the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board issues, which the AICPA has recognized as the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) standard-setting body for federal reporting entities since 1999. As noted above, nICPAs are often members of governmental audit teams, and it is critically important they are familiar with fund accounting. Similar to government auditing standards, government accounting standards have a far- 1GAO, Government Auditing Standards: 2018 Revision, GAO-1 8-568G (Washington, D.C.: July 2018). Page 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most