What is peer review?

              MAY 0 9 1984
What is peer review?
Recognizing the public's interest in reliable finan­cial statements and the importance the public attaches to reports by CPAs on those statements, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants established in 1977 a voluntary organization—its Division for CPA Firms. Its aim is to maintain and improve the quality of the accounting and auditing services performed by member firms.
This pioneering program is built on the con­cept of peer review, which is important to users of financial statements. A peer review of a member firm, carried out by other CPAs under the aus­pices of AICPA, provides assurance that the firm has an appropriate quality control system for its accounting and auditing practice and that it is complying with that system.
Peer reviewers evaluate a firm's quality con­trol system against standards and comprehensive guidelines that have been established by the AICPA. They also test a representative sample of a firm's accounting and auditing engagements for compliance with these professional standards. These procedures enable the peer reviewers to determine whether a firm's policies and proce­dures are adequate to achieve the objectives inherent in the nine basic elements of quality control for a CPA firm.
AICPA
Prepared by
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Divison for CPA Firms
What is peer review?