They ensure that boards of directors fulfill their financial and fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders.
Boards of directors define the role and responsibilities of their audit committees.
In addition to the presence of audit committees in companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, a number of stock exchanges in Canada, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia/Pacific region have adopted requirements for audit committees
Meetings : Audit committees meet one to four times each year, with three or four meetings being the most common.
Audit committees are required by the NYSE, American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and National Association of Securities Dealers (NASDAQ/National Market System issuers).
Roles and responsibilities of audit committees are disclosed in the annual proxy statements of publicly owned companies.
Standing Committees are the key power center in Congress.
U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the SEC adopted final rules amending the securities laws. Such actions have had an impact on audit committees.
Conference Committees
They function off of icecream.
audit committees, through their planning, reviewing, and monitoring activities, can recognize potential problem areas and take corrective action before problems that affect companies' financial statements and other financial disclosures arise.
The components of the center are the Audit Committee Toolkits (corporate, not-for-profit, and government), Audit Committee Matching System, Audit Committee e-Alerts, and a bank of materials containing information for and about audit committees.
Ian F. Y. Marrian has written: 'Audit committees'