What motivated the new GAO independence standards that Comptroller General David Walker has issued?
Bowsher: I think Walker saw what the SEC and POB were trying to accomplish as the world was changing in the late 1990s, and he’s faced up to some difficult issues and taken the Yellow Book a step further in ensuring independence. A Need for Leadership CPAJ: Do you think things will get better? Bowsher: Yes, I do. But I think the accounting profession needs to improve auditing first, because otherwise there will be lots of problems. For one thing, we can’t get down to much fewer than four big firms because the regulatory and legislative community—and the rest of the world—won’t accept it. Let me make an analogy to the automotive industry. There used to be many auto manufacturers. After they consolidated into three—Chrysler, Ford, and GM—American-made cars weren’t very good. I think our big auditing firms have put themselves in the same position. You can’t continue to have that many big audit failures that are tied to big business failures because either the civil liabilities will be hug
