Board of Regents Appoints QROC Members

The New York State Board of Regents appointed four of the five required members of the state’s Quality Review Oversight Committee (QROC), the oversight body of the state’s new mandatory quality review program that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2012.

The fifth QROC member will be appointed by the Regents at a later date. QROC was established by state regulations, which were adopted by the Regents on December 14, 2010 and took effect on Jan. 1, 2011, pursuant to the New York accountancy reform law. The four QROC appointees are NYSSCPA members and are as follows:

• John Roger Donohue, former NYSSCPA Peer Review Committee chair, past Society vice president and past Suffolk Chapter president. (Term: April 1, 2011-March 31, 2014)
• David J. Moynihan, past NYSSCPA president and former NYSSCPA Peer Review chair. (Term: April 1, 2011-March 31, 2015)
• John C. Olsen, NYSSCPA member and former State Board for Public Accountancy chair. (Term: April 1, 2011-March 31, 2016)
• Frank S. Venezia, current NYSSCPA Peer Review Committee chair. (Term: April 1, 2011-March 31, 2015)

QROC members serve five-year terms, except for the terms of these first appointees, which are arranged so that an equal number of terms shall terminate annually as nearly as possible. A QROC chair has not yet been named.

In addition to the approval and monitoring of sponsoring organizations, including review and approval of each sponsoring organization’s plan of administration, the QROC will also be charged with informing the State Education Department (SED) of any problems related to the quality review program that may require the department’s intervention, making an annual recommendation as to the qualifications of sponsoring organizations, assessing the quality review program overall, reviewing each quality review report to ensure firms are complying with the standards and ensuring that any documents received from a reviewer or firm is confidential and does not constitute a public record.

If the results of the QROC’s review indicate a firm is in compliance with applicable professional standards and has successfully completed a quality review performed by an SED-approved reviewer, the QROC will recommend to the SED that the quality review report be accepted. If the results reveal some deficiencies or indicates that the firm was not in compliance with applicable professional standards and the QROC finds that the quality review report warrants disciplinary action, then QROC may refer the firm to the Office of Professional Discipline.