[§466-34] Enrollment and participation. (a) Every firm, including the Hawaii offices and Hawaii engagements of foreign or multistate firms, that is required to obtain a firm permit to practice pursuant to section 466-7 shall undergo a peer review every three years. The firm's Hawaii offices, if any, and Hawaii attest engagements shall be included in the scope of the peer review performed in accordance with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Standards for Performing and Reporting on Peer Reviews.

(b) All firms subject to this part and performing Hawaii attest work as of December 31, 2014, shall enroll in the applicable program of an approved sponsoring organization by December 31, 2015, notify the board of enrollment in that program, and have a peer review performed by December 31, 2017.

(1) Notify the board within thirty days of the beginning of the performance of attest work;

(2) Enroll in the applicable programs of an approved sponsoring organization within one year from its initial licensing date or the performance of Hawaii attest work that requires a peer review;

(3) Provide the board with enrollment information within one year of the date the Hawaii attest work was first performed;

(4) Have a peer review performed within eighteen months of the date the Hawaii attest work was first performed;

(5) Adopt the peer review due date assigned by the sponsoring organization and notify the board of the peer review due date within thirty days of its assignment; and

(6) Schedule and begin an additional review within three years of the previous review's due date, or earlier if required by the sponsoring organization or the board; provided that the firm shall be responsible for anticipating its needs for peer review services in sufficient time to enable the reviewer to complete the review by the assigned review due date.

(d) A firm that does not perform Hawaii attest work shall be exempt from the peer review process.

(e) If a firm is merged, combined, dissolved, or separated, the sponsoring organization shall determine which resultant firm shall be considered the succeeding firm. The succeeding firm shall retain its peer review status and the review due date.

(f) The board shall accept extensions granted by the sponsoring organization to complete a peer review; provided that the board is notified by the firm within twenty days of the date that an extension is granted. The board may also grant a firm an extension of time to comply with the peer review requirement of this part based on a showing of hardship, including reasons of health, military service, or other good cause as determined by the board.

(g) A firm that has been rejected by a sponsoring organization for any reason shall make a request in writing to the board for authorization to enroll in a program of another sponsoring organization.

(h) A firm that chooses to enroll in a program of another sponsoring organization pursuant to subsection (g) may do so; provided that the firm authorizes the previous sponsoring organization to communicate to the succeeding sponsoring organization any outstanding corrective actions related to the firm's most recent peer review. Any outstanding corrective actions shall be cleared and outstanding fees paid prior to the transfer between sponsoring organizations.

(i) An out-of-state firm performing Hawaii attest work shall comply with this part.

(j) If a firm is subject to inspections pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended, and also performs Hawaii attest work not subject to those inspections, the firm shall enroll in a peer review program for review of its non-public company Hawaii attest work in addition to the firm inspection program required by the public company accounting oversight board. [L 2012, c 324, pt of §1]