Industry insight into the auditor change process.

CASE STUDY

What drives the auditor change process from an industry perspective? Robert H. Brewer, director of audits for Praxair Inc., an industrial gas company in Danbury, Connecticut, producing gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and helium, said his company made a change when it spun off from Union Carbide in 1992. Brewer, who is chair of the American Institute of CPAs members in industry executive committee, said "we were not dissatisfied with our previous auditor, we were just a new company evaluating all of our outside suppliers to make sure they were the ones we wanted to deal with in the long run."

According to Brewer, Praxair went through a two-phase selection process. In the first, the company evaluated the candidates' qualifications on a global basis--Praxair does business in 44 countries. "We …