[link|http://money.cnn.com/2002/01/17/news/sec_pitt/|Harvey Pitt makes the right noises]
Excerpt:
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Securities & Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt called Thursday for reform of the way accounting firms are monitored and regulated in the United States in an effort to restore public confidence in the profession in the wake of scandals involving Enron Corp. and other companies.
"This commission cannot and will not tolerate a pattern of growing restatements, audit failures, corporate failures and massive investor losses," Pitt said in a news conference. "Somehow we have got to put a stop to the vicious cycle that has now been in evidence for far too many years."
Pitt proposed the creation of a new body, composed mostly of representatives from the public sector, to oversee and discipline accounting firms, and he called for a reform of the triennial peer review process, which has been criticized "with some merit," Pitt said.