May 4, 2009, letter commenting on the AICPA's Auditing Standards Board (ASB) December 2008 Exposure Draft entitled Proposed Statement on "Auditing Standards, Compliance Audits"

This letter provides the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO) comments on the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Auditing Standards Board's (ASB) proposed Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) on compliance audits. We commend the ASB for taking on this project to clarify the requirements for compliance auditing. Overall, we support the proposed statement and believe that the revised SAS adds much-needed clarity in this area of practice.