Cindy Fornelli, executive director of the Center for Audit Quality, often compares a corporate board’s audit committee to the kitchen drawer: It’s where everything important goes when you have no other obvious spot to put it. Only instead of keys and a wallet and a pocket knife, the audit committee agenda is full of internal controls, the external audit, internal audit, special investigations, related-party transactions, risk oversight and, of course, the core responsibility of making sure the financials are correct.
