Audit Regulator’s Economic Analysis Lacks Rigor, Ex-Staffer Says

The US audit regulator’s December draft standards requiring auditors to confirm certain material assets and accounts were only weakly supported by economic analysis, a former staffer of the agency has told members of Congress.

Victor Jarosiewicz, who was a financial economist with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, told lawmakers in a letter dated April 17 that the board and its economic analysis office don’t understand the impacts of its audit standards and whether the benefits outweigh any costs or serve the interests of the American public.

“The entire qualitative analysis is purely speculative, full of nothing more than ...