After reviewing financial filings by Fortune 500 companies last year, the S.E.C.'s corporate finance division cited accounting for impaired investment assets as one of its chief concerns.
That put the Patent Office in the awkward position of having to review filings without having historical data against which to check the originality of the ideas.
A spokeswoman for Texaco said the company "will be reviewing filings" that T.W.A. must make with the S.E.C.
The Office of Government Ethics, part of the Office of Personnel Management, reviews personal financial filings of Federal officials and interprets conflict-of-interest laws and rules.
Over the same period, the staff of lawyers and accountants who review such filings grew by 29 percent, from 125 to 161.
The company said that all the criticisms were unfounded, and emphasized that the S.E.C. had not challenged its accounting when it reviewed filings made in connection with numerous deals.
The commission has since revised the way it reviews corporate filings and put more resources into examining the disclosures of the largest companies.
Late Result Uncounted To estimate performance and come up with individual rankings, CDA reviewed periodic filings that 540 money managers made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The initial recruitment contract will focus on midlevel accountants in the division of corporation finance, whose staff members work in the S.E.C. headquarters in Washington, reviewing corporate filings and ensuring that companies comply with regulations.
He was assigned by U.S. District Court Judge Benson W. Hough as a special commissioner to review filings in a utility rate case in Columbus.