At an open commission meeting yesterday, the SEC approved the budget of - and related annual support fee paid by public companies to fund - the Private Company Accounting Oversight Board. See the SEC's Order Approving Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Budget and Annual Accounting Support Fee for Calendar Year 2012.

The creation of PCAOB, and the SEC's responsibilities related thereto (including review and approval of the PCAOB's budget, approval of PCAOB board members and certain approvals regarding PCAOB standard setting) were established under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

As noted in SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro's opening remarks at yesterday's SEC meeting:

"When the PCAOB was established, it represented an unprecedented change in the oversight of the audit profession. Investors were no longer left to rely on a 'peer review' system where one auditor reviewed the work of another. Rather, inspections were to be conducted by professionals free from potential conflict, and the results of those inspections were to be made public.

"The increased credibility and objectivity inherent in this model speaks for itself. If you compare the findings of an old peer review report with a PCAOB inspection report, you would be struck by the nature and extent of investor protection and professional quality areas identified by the board.

"Likewise, the standards governing audit performance — including how an audit is to be performed by an independent and objective party — are now set by the PCAOB, rather than the auditing profession."

Schapiro emphasized that in addition to overseeing the audit profession, PCAOB must conduct self-assessments of its own performance in standard setting and other areas as well, noting: 

"Given its responsibilities and the vital protections it provides to the investment community, the PCAOB must continuously re-examine the results of its standard setting, inspection and enforcement efforts, and we at the SEC must do the same in our oversight capacity." 

NOTE: On the subject of standard-setters' self-assessments, see our blog post coming later today, about  issuance of the Financial Accounting Foundation's (overseer of the FASB) first Post-Implementation Review (PIR) report on a FASB standard. 

Prepared remarks of other SEC Commissioners posted so far from yesterday's open commission meeting regarding the PCAOB budget and annual support fee include the remarks of Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar.