Please accept my congratulations for the thorough analysis of the
accounting profession which was released by your staff last month.
It pinpoints many of the problems of the accounting profession
and what can be done to rectify them.

I respectfully suggest that your objectives might be accomplished
by adopting the ideas advanced by Eli Mason, CPA in the July 1975
issue of "The CPA." Mr. Mason's proposal incorporates many of
your own. It provides a method of insuring that the "Big Eight"
will no longer dominate the American Institute of CPAs. It insures
that admission to the profession would be by uniform standards
throughout the United States and would not be subject to the laws
and regulations of fifty separate State Boards of Accountancy. I
currently serve as Secretary of the Connecticut State Board of
Accountancy and am concerned by the restrictions placed on CPAS
crossing state lines to serve their clients. This is an anachronism
in the jet age and is a disservice to the small businessman.
Moreover, it does not affect the ability of the "Big Eight" to
serve their clientele and thus discriminates against the local
practitioners.

Respectfully,

Earle E. Jacobs, Jr., CPA

Having only recently become aware of the results of your Staff
Study on the Accounting Establishment by way of the latest issues
of professional magazines, I would like to make some comments
that may be of interest.

I have been in public practice for over 25 years as a sole
practitioner serving small business in the Los Angeles area. I
am a member of the California Society of C.P.A., the Society of
California Accountants, National Society of Public Accountants,
and terminated my membership in the A.I.C.P.A. which I held since
receiving my certificate, as of June 30, 1975.

While my personal feelings and conclusions gathered over the years
tend to parallel your Study as to the dominance of the AICPA and
the large national firms over the profession, I must comment that
until the late 1960's the Institute performed a very important
function in promulgating the procedural and ethical rules presently
adhered to by the profession.

My own experiences over the years, and recently in the past two years
as State Chairman of the Accounting Practices & Techniques Committee
for the Society of California Accountants, show that for years the
Institute generally ignored the problems and issues confronting the
small, local pratitioners, and those areas of concern to small
business enterprises.

When the emphasis of the Institute's activities turned more and more
to the problems concerning publicly-owned companies, it became very
apparent where the interests of the A.I.C.P.A. lay. The low percentage
representation of smaller practice units on committees and the board
of the Institute is because the local pratitioner can ill afford the
time away from his work. I see that when attempting to arrange for

DAVID RISENMAN
Certified Public Accountant

Senator Lee Metcalf

Page Two

5451 LAUREL CANYON BLVD. NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. 91607

(213) 984-2488

I commend you and your staff for your efforts and would hope that. as a result of your report and the up-coming hearings the public accountant in general and the local pratitioners in particular do not suffer a severe loss of reputation.

May I suggest that you consider favorably the small practice units.
We serve small and medium-size business, providing a wide variety
of services that are necessary to keep these enterprises flourishing.
The tasks performed by the public accountant in our society play an
important and needed role in our economy.

The high ethical standards of honesty, independence of attitude,
adequate disclosure to third parties, confidentiallity of client
relationship and competency exists throughout the profession and
is evident whenever I come in contact with other practitioners.
Many times the problem is convincing the client to accept our high
standards!

Cordially yours,

Daniel Risenman

David Riseoman, C. P. A.

DR, S

This subcommittee has scheduled hearings regarding the performance of the accounting profession on 19 and 21 April and 10, 12, 24 and 26 May. One of the primary issues to be considered is the independence of public

accountants.

Partners and senior staff personnel of public accounting firms often accept employment with publiclyowned corporations that are audited by the accounting firm under the requirements of the Federal securities laws. There is serious question as to whether an accounting firm can be properly independent when auditing a corporation where one or more of the management personnel were formerly employed by the accounting firm.

One solution to this problem might be to require partners and staff of accounting firms which audit publicly-owned corporations to sign voluntary contractual agreements stating that they will not accept employment with corporate clients of the accounting firm until a reasonable period of time after leaving the accounting firm. For example. if a period of two years were deemed reasonable, an accountant would not accept employment with a client of his firm until after the two years had lapsed. Of course. the accountant would be free to accept immediate employment with corporations which were