An examination of the auditing standards promulgation process involving SAS No. 69

Our paper examines the development of Statement on Auditing Standards No. 69. ( AICPA, 1992a). The Statement arose in part due to a jurisdictional dispute between the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) involving the promulgation of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) ( AICPA, 1991a, p. 2). We considered all of the comment letters to the exposure draft (ED) of the Statement in an effort to determine if there are certain biases present in the audit standard-setting process involving the success of achieving an organizations's comments (proposed modifications) being integrated into the final Statement. The results did not support the thesis that an advantage accrues to national public accounting firms or other public accounting firms which have an employee serving on the Board. However. in the case of three influential organizations which are external to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and whose domain of control was threatened by the proposed SAS: the FASB, GASB, and the National State Auditors Association (NSAA), the success rate of comment integration was statistically significant.