The Center for Audit Quality, working with Audit Analytics, has
just released a new edition of its annual Audit Committee Transparency
Barometer, which, over the past five years, has measured
the robustness of audit committee disclosures in proxy statements
among companies in the S&P Composite 1500. The bottom line,
according to the CAQ, is that the level of voluntary transparency
has continued to steadily increase in most areas. The report
includes several useful examples of the types of disclosure
discussed.
Among the key findings:
- An increase in the percentage of
S&P 500 companies that disclosed in their proxy statements
enhanced discussions of their audit committees' considerations
in recommending the appointment of their audit firms from 13% in
2014 to 40% in 2018; among mid-cap companies, 27% included enhanced
discussion of these considerations in 2018 (an increase from 10% in
2014), compared to 19% of small-cap companies in 2018 (an increase
from 8% in
