With Tax day gone for 2010 many of us can breath easier. But there is a bit of controversy brewing at the largely under the radar California Board of Accountancy.
Brian Joseph at the OC Register has decided to pick on your favorite pencil pushing CPA by suggesting that the board that oversees the profession is operating in a less than transparent way.
Apparently if you go to the California Board of Accountancy web site, they fail to list every detail of every wild accusation facing CPAs in the state. Instead, they list the names of any CPA under investigation and ask that you email or call for a copy of the report. I think this is an entirely appropriate method of operation. And apparently so does the board. But they will soon revisit the policy and perhaps make the accusations public immediately.
That would be a bad move.
Professionals who are recognized and licensed by the state ought to be held to a higher standard, and they are. However, they should not be subject to the whims of clients who might be angry over a lower than expected tax return. Anyone can file a complaint for any reason. It is incumbent on the board to investigate all claims. But it would not be right to allow these accusation to be plastered all over the Internet without even the initial phase of investigation being complete. That would leave the profession open to unhealthy sabotage efforts.
Open government is one thing. But posting ruinous information without any regard for truth or accuracy is irresponsible.
April 20th, 2010 at 12:00 am
The State Board of Accountancy is a sorry group. With 80,000 licensees, it has only 3 investigators against misbehaving CPAs.
With regard to this issue on its website, the Board receives various original “complaints” from the public, but they are not posted on the website. Only after thorough investigation AND drafting with the state Attorney General’s office does the matter become an “accusation” against a licensee. These “accusations” are public documents. The “complaints” are not.
The Board has been responding to a mandate from its supervising agency Consumer Affairs Department for professional boards to post the accusations on their websites (including doctors, nurses, and so on).
Unfortunately the Board of Accountancy has agonized over this sunshine, and has tried to hide or obscure the accusations on its website. It’s been on the agenda for several Board meetings over the past year. The Board has discussed measures to make difficult the finding of these accusations by web search engines, and so on.
Having attended all of these Board meetings over the past year, I am appalled. The rest of the public should be too.