Levitt tells Big 4: put investors first!(Arthur Levitt)(Transcript)

Accounting Today, December, 2003

NEW YORK -- In a meeting in late November with the partnership of Big Four firm KPMG, former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Arthur Levitt said that auditors must make the investing public their top priority.

"First and foremost, auditors must put investors first," he said. "For too long, auditors have put management first. While they pay your fees, they are not your ultimate customers; investors are."

Levitt's talk, which ranged from financial reporting and the Financial Accounting Standards Board to governance and accounting education, coincided with KPMG testimony before a Senate subcommittee investigating the marketing of abusive tax shelters by accounting firms.

"After all, nothing is more important than restoring the public's...