2015 PROC Summit Highlights

Enforcement Newsletter

August 2015

NASBA and the Compliance Assurance Committee recently hosted the 2015 PROC Summit on July 10, in Nashville, Tennessee. This year’s event was the most-attended PROC Summit to date with over 80 attendees representing at least 30 states. Videos of all the speaker presentations are available for viewing on the NASBA YouTube channel.

The biennial conference supports and promotes peer review oversight as a critical and valuable practice for all Boards of Accountancy. The Summit brings all of the players together to discuss current trends and issues and provides new PROCs with a framework and process to begin their oversight and allows existing PROCs to share experiences of what works and what doesn’t to help each board be more effective with peer review oversight.

The Summit opened with a recap from Janice Gray, Chair of the Compliance Assurance Committee (CAC), on the work the committee completed this year, including responding to several AICPA Exposure Drafts and UAA Model Rule updates, preparing a white paper on Failed Reports Guidance for Boards of Accountancy, releasing the NASBA CAC 2013-14 Report on Oversight of the AICPA NPRC, and of course, planning the 2015 PROC Summit. This was followed by a Keynote presentation by James Brackens, AICPA Vice President of Ethics and Practice Quality, on the Changes in Peer Review and the Future of Practice Monitoring.

Two breakout sessions were offered, one intended for Boards with new or forming PROCs, and the other for Boards that have an established PROC, highlighting the PROC Resources section of NASBA.org and the training videos available. Additionally, Rick Reisig returned again this year to host his informative Lessons Learned session providing an opportunity for attendees to share successes as well as advice on things that did not work so well. The exchange of information between attendees is priceless and is one of the goals of the Summit. "The Lessons Learned session was of huge practical use. Great topics and great participation," was one attendee’s feedback.

Special guest speaker Colonel Frances X. Ryan, CPA and retired USMCR gave an inspiring presentation on how PROCs are The Final Line of Defense in Protecting the Public. Colonel Ryan’s presentation was a fresh perspective on the hot topic of audit quality and the role PROCs play in this arena of the accounting profession. The day winded down with an informational session on how the AE’s are handling problem reviewers and closed with a Stump the Chumps session allowing attendees to ask questions of the all of the presenters.