The PCAOB has announced an open board meeting will be held next Tuesday (Dec. 20, 2011) for the board to consider reproposing an auditing standard that was originally proposed on March 29, 2010 entitled  Communications With Audit Committees. The board states it is considering reproposing the standard "to seek further comments."

As noted in the introductory paragraph of last year's proposal on Communication with Audit Committees, the PCAOB standard "would supersede the Board's interim standards AU sec. 380, Communication With Audit Committees, and AU sec. 310, Appointment of the Independent Auditor, and would amend certain other PCAOB auditing standards."

Note: The reference to 'interim standards' above relates to the fact that PCAOB, formed as an independent auditing standard-setting organization in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, took over the function of establishing, amending, inspecting to, and enforcing compliance with auditing standards for audits of public companies.  When the PCAOB was first established, as an interim measure, it adopted a baseline suite of auditing standards originally published by the AICPA's Auditing Standards Board (ASB), pending issuance of new or amended standards by the PCAOB.

Thirty-five comment letters were filed on the PCAOB's 2010 proposal on Communications with Audit Committees, with some additional letters filed prior to a September, 2010 public roundtable on this subject. (See the comment letter filed by FEI's Committee on Corporate Reporting (CCR) on the 2010 proposal.) For highlights from the comment letters, see this excerpt from the PCAOB's July 15, 2010 Standing Advisory Group meeting, which includes related slides presented to the SAG. To obtain additional feedback, the PCAOB held a public roundtable on the proposal on Sept. 21, 2010; see the transcript and briefing paper.

The PCAOB's meeting announcement for next week's meeting states the board will consider reproposing the standard on Communications with Audit Committees "and other amendments to PCAOB standards."

I assume (please see the disclaimer posted on the right side of this blog) that (1) the reproposed standard will include some changes in response to the comment letters received on the 2010 edition, and (2) the reference to "and other amendments to PCAOB standards" refers to standards directly related to communications with audit committees, rather than a major new standard-setting initiative in an unrelated area. It is farily common for the PCAOB to refer to "other amendments to PCAOB standards" in connection with related rulemaking on a particular topic, when it releases a proposed or final rule (standard), although it is possible some other standards would be considered.