Deloitte & Touche LLP repeatedly failed to supportassumptions in audits examined in a 2007 inspection, the PublicCompany Accounting Oversight Board said in the first public reportof unresolved deficiencies involving one of the so-called Big Fouraccounting firms.

The firm's quality controls and independence systems give “causefor concern,” the PCAOB said in its report, which was releasedtoday. The Washington-based nonprofit, created in 2002 to overseeaudits of public companies after the collapses of Enron Corp. andWorldCom Inc., gives audit firms at least a year to fixdeficiencies and only releases the reports in cases where auditorsfail to make sufficient improvements.

“These deficiencies may result, in part, from a Firm culturethat allows, or tolerates, audit approaches that do notconsistently emphasize the need for an appropriate level ofcritical analysis,” the PCAOB said in the Deloitte report, whichdidn't name the clients involved in the cited audits.