Nearly 20 years have passed since the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) published the seminal report Internal Control—Integrated Framework, which—with impetus from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002—became the authoritative document on internal control both in the United States and overseas. On a personal note, it’s hard for me to believe so much time elapsed, as I remember well serving as the lead project partner of the PwC team that conceptualized and developed that report.
The Framework has stood the test of time, and continues to be the standard against which companies measure the effectiveness of their systems of internal control. But with the passage of time and evolution of corporate structures, activities, and technologies, the COSO board decided that an updated version of the Framework would be useful. And once again, COSO turned to PwC to take on this important responsibility.
