Please accept my congratulations for the thorough analysis of the I respectfully suggest that your objectives might be accomplished Respectfully, Earle E. Jacobs, Jr., CPA Having only recently become aware of the results of your Staff I have been in public practice for over 25 years as a sole While my personal feelings and conclusions gathered over the years My own experiences over the years, and recently in the past two years When the emphasis of the Institute's activities turned more and more DAVID RISENMAN 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. The high ethical standards of honesty, independence of attitude, 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 |