Companies might be taking their audit committees more seriously but there's still a long way to go, according to a new study.

The number of accountants sitting on audit committees has more than doubled when compared with four years ago, but extraordinarily, six out of 10 companies have audit committees that don't have an accountant, according to a study by the Huron Consulting Group.

The study of 178 public companies from the NASDAQ 100 and Fortune 100 listings for 2005 found that the number of audit committees with at least one accountant went from 20 per cent in 2002 to 38 per cent in 2005. According to the study, 17 per cent of companies didn't have an audit committee financial expert with either an accounting or finance background. And 37 per cent of so-called audit committee financial experts appeared to have neither and accounting or finance background. Try and work that one out!

Consider this in the context of Sarbanes-Oxley. In January 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission produced a rule requiring companies to detail audit committee financial expert information in their annual reports. According to the SEC, financial experts should understand generally accepted accounting principles, they should have some sort of understanding of how to account for estimates, accruals and reserves, they need some experience auditing and analysing financial statements and they need to understand internal controls and procedures for financial reporting.

With demand for accountants and financial experts outstripping supply, it's another sign of the problem with the skills shortage.