The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is asking the federal government to soften a rule adopted after financial scandals that accounting firms failed to expose at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc., Freddie Mac and other major U.S. companies.
The chamber, which lobbies for businesses large and small, wants the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow accounting firms to perform audits for any company within a year of having provided consulting or other services for that company.
The current rule bars a company from hiring as its auditor any accounting firm that has performed other services for it within five years. The SEC adopted the rule three years ago as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which Congress passed to tighten corporate accountability and make it harder for companies to mislead investors about corporate financial health.
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