The Treasury Department?s Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession is approaching the final stretch of its one-year life span as it prepares for a June 3, 2008, meeting where it will review a draft of the final report it will submit to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in July.

The meeting's agenda also includes oral testimony from witnesses and consideration of written comments on the draft report. Treasury has asked that comments be submitted by June 13.

The draft, which was discussed during the committee?s May 5 meeting, addresses several human resources issues, including partner rotation, retention, and compensation, as well as the more complex issues for firms such as raising outside capital, litigation, and liability.

One recommendation asks the Public Company Accounting and Oversight Board (PCAOB), in consultation with auditors, investors, public companies, and others to "determine the feasibility of developing key indicators of audit quality and effectiveness and requiring auditing firms to publicly disclose these indicators."

The draft report says that given the dearth of publicly available information on audit quality, requiring firms to disclose indicators would have other positive effects, including improved decision-making by audit committees in approving auditor selection.