Auditor independence is a good thing, right?

Right?

Since the early days of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we've been told that using the same accounting firm to do your internal and external audits was a recipe for corporate disaster — or at least left the door open for a little financial tomfoolery. Doing so would stink of conflict of interest, we were told. Best to drive a wedge between internal and external audits, regulators said.

Now, thanks to a new report from professors at Brigham Young and Texas A&M universities, we're being told just the opposite — that using the same firm for both internal and external audits actual lowers a company's accounting risk.

Huh?

According to CFO.com's Sarah Johnson, the report concluded that “the knowledge of a company that an external auditor gained from internal auditing lowered the chances of publishing misleading or fraudulent financial results.”

Don't expect anyone to rush out and overhaul the Sarbanes-Oxley Act anytime soon. Still, the professors hope regulators will use the report as an excuse to reflect on accounting legislation more thoughtfully in the future, rather than rushing it into law a la Sarbox.

And that's not the only recent auditor-related news.

The New York Times' David M. Herszenhorn reports that some of the first economic stimulus-related jobs will go to — drumroll, please — auditors, lawyers and other watchdogs who will be tasked with making sure taxpayers' money is being spent on shoring up the economy. In fact, the new stimulus plan calls for more than $350 million to be spent specifically on oversight.

“Some experts warn that the government might now need auditors for its auditors and new overseers for inspectors general, who typically answer directly to Congress,” Herszenhorn writes. “… The new stimulus package includes roughly $253 million for inspectors general, $84 million for (a) transparency board, and an additional $25 million for the Government Accountability Office.”

My opinion? It's about flippin' time. We doled out about $350 billion in bailout funds last fall and we still don't have a clue as to how much of it was spent. This is my money — your money — we're talking about. Auditors had better play a bigger role in this process. If taxpayers have to watch $787 billion of their money being thrown at this problem, they should be assured that the money is being spent in a way that will help the economy recover.

Because if it's not? Well, that's infuriating.