PCAOB agrees on audit regulation pact with Lithuania

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has made a pact with Lithuania’s audit regulator to allow the two organizations to cooperate on overseeing audit firms that operate in their jurisdictions.

The Statement of Protocol, which took effect Nov. 12,  enables the Authority of Audit, Accounting, Property Valuation and Insolvency Management of Lithuania and the U.S. regulator to cooperate on exchanging information, help with investigations, conduct joint inspections, share work papers and other documents and more. 

“Open dialogue and cooperation among audit regulators are critical to meet the evolving challenges of the global capital markets,” said PCAOB acting chair George Botic in a statement Wednesday. “This Statement of Protocol between the PCAOB and the AAAPVIM will allow us to work closely together to protect investors and promote audit quality across our jurisdictions.”

This is the 29th bilateral agreement that the PCAOB has struck with a foreign audit regulator. A similar pact was agreed to in May with the Slovak Republic’s audit regulator.

“This Statement of Protocol serves as yet another example of successful cross-border collaboration between the PCAOB and its counterparts abroad,” said PCAOB director of international affairs Karen Dietrich in a statement.