By FAWN JOHNSON

WASHINGTON—The U.S. board overseeing company auditors has sent a draft bill to Congress to make its enforcement proceedings public.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's proposal would repeal a requirement that its disciplinary actions remain secret, according to a copy of the document reviewed by Dow Jones.

The public now is denied access to information about accountants that have been sanctioned or charged by the PCAOB, acting Chairman Daniel Goelzer said in an Aug. 24 letter to several members of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee.

The private nature of the proceedings gives firms and auditors an incentive to drag out litigation, sometimes for years, while the public remains unaware, the letter said.

The cases also consume considerable board resources; three recent cases have used 17,000 hours of board staffers' time, the letter said. Two of those cases are still pending. One has settled.

The PCAOB's proposal comes as lawmakers are considering technical changes to the financial-overhaul law, changes that could be enacted in the next year. Lawmakers also are mulling legislation this year to give the public more access to enforcement documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees the PCAOB, a nonprofit.

The draft bill from the PCAOB could be part of either measure.

The PCAOB's letter said public disciplinary hearings would conform to the longstanding practice at the SEC for public enforcement hearings.

"Virtually all other administrative proceedings brought by the SEC (including those against brokers, dealers, investment advisers, and public companies) and all SEC injunctive actions are public," the letter said.

The PCAOB was created under the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting law to inspect accounting firms for compliance, impose disciplinary sanctions, and set auditing standards.