The SEC’s 2006 Performance and Accountability Report (PAR), released Nov. 15, shows the SEC received a “clean opinion” from the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) this year, on its financial statements and internal controls. This is an improvement over the prior year, in which GAO cited the SEC for having three material weaknesses in internal control, which have now been remedied by the SEC. Other highlights in the PAR are that the decline in the number of (and dollar value of) new foreign companies registering securities under the 1933 and 1934 Acts “may be the result of concerns some non-u.s. issuers have expressed about the impact and costs of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act… “ The PAR then noted the upcoming consideration of proposed rulemaking by the SEC on December 13 and parallel efforts underway at the PCAOB to amend AS2, to provide some relief from the implementation burden experienced in the first two years of compliance with Section 404. Also noted among “performance measures” in the PAR was the fact that the Division of Corporation Finance has kept within its goal of issuing initial comments on 1933 and 1934 Act filings within 30 days (on average, within 26 days of filing in 2006). Staff turnover at the SEC has doubled (to 9.1 % in 2006, from 5.8% in 2002), which is largely attributed to heightened competition from the private sector. The PAR is available here.