"We can't afford to wait any longer in light of recent events, including the reported destruction of documents by Andersen personnel and the disciplinary actions taken against several of Andersen’s partners working in its Houston office,” said Enron CEO Kenneth Lay.

In response to the Enron mess that has caused a huge stir in the accounting community, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt announced yesterday that the SEC intends to work with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants to form an independent policing group, composed of non-industry members, that will conduct rigorous reviews of the largest firms' audits and would have the authority to discipline accountants for incompetence and ethics violations.

"There is a need for reform of the regulation of our accounting profession," said Pitt. "We cannot afford a system, like the present one, that facilitates failure rather than success. Accounting firms have important public responsibilities. We have had far too many financial and accounting failures."

Read Harvey Pitt's announcement and the AICPA's reaction.