A group of auditing firms including Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, BDO International and Grant Thornton collaborated on a report that insists liability standards should be eased for accounting firms and that companies and investors should face higher charges for forensic audits, which are more likely to uncover fraud

Risk Management, Feb, 2007

A group of auditing firms including Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, BDO International and Grant Thornton collaborated on a report that insists liability standards should be eased for accounting firms and that companies and investors should face higher charges for forensic audits, which are more likely to uncover fraud. The firms claim that there is an "expectations gap" between what investors are seeking from audit reports and what firms are able to provide through traditional auditing practices. They also noted that in order to prevent fraud, more in-depth audits would need to be conducted and could be required of firms every five years or possibly on a random basis.

Source: New York Times; Floyd Norris