Accounting firms raise fees for tougher audits.

(From South China Morning Post)

BDO Seidman's bid last month to audit a manufacturer was 20 per cent higher than the company paid last year. The sixth-largest United States accounting firm still managed to undercut its competitors.

"I was shocked when the CFO called to say we were the low bidder," said Leland Graul, head of public-company auditing at BDO. "We were high but everybody else, including the Big Four, was higher."

He was referring to rivals PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young and KPMG.

US accounting firms say they are boosting fees by as much as 35 per cent this year as they devote more staff and time to search for irregularities such as those that led to the Enron and WorldCom …