A new report finds that despite the growing importance of records management to prevent snafus in corporate litigation, only one-third of companies believe they have a comprehensive records management program. The 2007 Iron Mountain Compliance Benchmark Report surveyed nearly 2,000 people at public, private, government, and nonprofit organizations. Only 35 percent of respondents said they […]
Dunn Christine
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
More Accountants Sit on Audit Committees
Perhaps it was inevitable after Sarbanes-Oxley, but new research shows that accountants are invading Corporate America’s audit committees. The number of audit committee members identifying themselves as accountants doubled from 2002 to 2006 and now comprise 12 percent of all the audit committee members out there, according to a recent study by Huron Consulting. Moreover, […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Focusing the Internal Audit Team on Fraud
Risk assessments, internal control guidelines, and SOX-related processes have become commonplace in corporate operations. But all of that effort only serves to underscore the one issue that companies still haven’t solved: how to monitor and prevent fraud. “Many organizations still stick their heads in the sand when it comes to fraud,” says Dave Richards, president […]
Posted inInternal Controls
COSO Seeks Input on Monitoring Guidance
The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations has released a draft of new guidance on monitoring internal controls, considered by many to be a vital—if elusive—part of streamlining Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts. The 40-page document was released last week, and COSO officials are asking the business community to review the draft and provide feedback. The comment period will […]
Posted inTechnology
Auditing IT: Where to Focus Your Attention
For most of today’s competitive business environment, it’s a manager’s cliche: “Seconds count.” But when the job is auditing an IT system, the concept applies literally. “Having real-time access to information is absolutely critical,” says Michelle Dickman, chief executive officer of TriGeo Network Security, an IT consulting firm in Port Falls, Idaho. A post-mortem of […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
The Investor Activist Who Took Down Yahoo
In the latest of our conversations with players in the compliance and governance realm, we talk to shareholder activist Eric Jackson, chief executive of Jackson Leadership Systems. DETAILS Jackson Eric Jackson is the president and CEO of the consulting firm Jackson Leadership Systems. Prior to Jackson Leadership, he served as vice president of strategy and […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Internal Auditors Developing Best Practices
The long, informal history of internal auditing is evolving into its own set of best practices, as regulatory obligations push companies to new extremes of compliance, a comprehensive study has found. Preliminary results from a first-of-its-kind, global review of internal auditing conducted by the Institute of Internal Auditors shows that the group has neatly positioned […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
How Nielsen Prepares For First SOX Audit
In the latest of our weekly conversations with governance and compliance executives, we talk to Peter Newton, vice president of internal controls at Nielsen Co. You can see an archive of previous question-and-answer interviews here. DETAILS Newton Peter Newton is currently vice president of internal controls at the Nielsen Co. Newton heads the central function […]
Posted inTechnology
Adding Compliance Solutions To ERP Systems
Companies invest a lot of time and money in enterprise resource planning software—and yet, at the end of the day, those weighty ERP systems still don’t necessarily fulfill all a company’s needs when it comes to financial reporting requirements, such as those outlined under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. ERP systems aim to integrate all of the […]
Posted inTechnology
Designing Seamless IT Compliance Systems
Once upon a time, Corporate America used technology pretty much for one reason: to help companies do things. IT systems were a constellation of computer programs to manage and manipulate data and recover information as needed. And in that environment, says Thomas Bookwalter, founder of the consulting firm FMDC. IT departments typically worked in their […]