mr. goelzer. >> thank you. chairman kanjorski, ranking member garrett, members of the subcommittee, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the public company accounting oversight board. congress created the boad in 2002 to provide rigorous, independent oversight of public company auditors. i would like to summarize how we discharge our responsibilities and how the board has responded to issues raised by the financial crisis. i also want to mention some challenges w currently face. the board has four basic functions. first, no accounting firm may prepare or substantially contribute to an audit report for a company that files financial statements with the securities and exchange commission without first registering with the pcaob. there are currently about 2,500 board-registered accounting firms in 87 countries. second, the board conducts a continuing program of inspections of registered firms' public company auditing including reviews of individual engagements and eval

mr. goelzer.> thank you. chairn kanjorski, ranking member garrett, members of the subcommittee, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the public company accounting oversight board. congress created the board in 2002 to provide rigorous, independent oversight of public company auditors. i would like to summarize how we discharge our responsibilities and how the board has responded to issues raised by the financial crisis. i also wan to mention some challenges we currently face. the board has four basic functions. first, no accounting firm may prepare or substantially contribute to an audit report for a company that files financial statements with the securities and exchange commission without first registeng with the pcaob. there are currently about 2,500 board-registered accounting firms in 87 countries. second, the board conducts a continuing program of inspections of registered firms' public company auditing including reviews of individual engagements and evaluatio