The question of whether to combine the roles of board chairman and CEO or to separate them generates robust debate, with visceral feelings and often-strained relationships. Many institutional investors and leading governance experts, and indeed many sitting directors, argue in favor of splitting the jobs; many CEOs holding the chairman title insist their authority and […]
Internal Controls
Posted inInternal Controls
Paper Argues Alternatives to SOX 404 for Small Cos.
As smaller public companies hold out hope that Congress will exempt them from compliance with the external auditor provision of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, an academic paper may provide ammunition to the exemption’s supporters. A paper published by University of Texas accounting professor William Kinney and research student Marcy Shepardson suggests that there […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Poll: IPO Companies Cite Governance as Top Challenge
Public companies aren’t the only ones struggling to get governance right. Would-be public companies appear to share their pain, according to surveys conducted by KPMG LLP. In a series of polls conducted by the Big 4 firm, companies preparing for an initial public offering cited improving corporate governance as their top challenge. Asked to name […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Tips for Structuring the Compliance Department
The structure of corporate compliance departments has become a hot topic lately, thanks in particular to amendments to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines that put a spotlight on compliance officer’s reporting authority and independence. No single “right way” exists to structure a compliance department, but at Compliance Week 2010, compliance leaders from large and small companies […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Succeeding With External Compliance Monitors
Any compliance officers out there who believe they have a hard time working with a government-appointed compliance monitor, be quiet. United Launch Alliance has a story that tops yours. The aerospace concern, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin to build rockets and send satellites into orbit for the U.S. government, had to accept […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Shop Talk: Managing Third-Party Risks
On April 22, 2010, Compliance Week and SAI Global presented an exclusive editorial roundtable about strategies for managing third-party risks. The roundtable, held at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington D.C., was moderated by Compliance Week Editor Matt Kelly and Christine Mills, senior vice president of SAI Global. Panelists included executives from Hewlett-Packard, Johnson Controls, Aramark […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Senators File Amendment to SOX 404(b) Exemption
Gear up for more fighting on SOX 404: An amendment to Senate financial reform bill would exempt companies with less than $150 million in public float from Sarbanes-Oxley’s outside auditor attestation requirement, which would include some companies already complying with the provision. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), chair of the […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Study Finds Gap in Privacy Expectations, Delivery
Corporations are still failing to deliver on efforts to tighten up information security and consumer privacy, despite all the bad publicity and legal risks that they—and everyone else—are already painfully aware of, according to a new study on the problem. The report, conducted by Accenture and the Ponemon Institute, surveyed 5,500 business leaders to see […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Auditing the HR Function
Workforce issues such as recruitment, retention, diversity, and business conduct are often the expression of a company’s commitment to good values. A company with poor values is probably going to have confused and disgruntled employees. So it should be no surprise that human resource (HR) issues have been at the forefront of major business frauds […]
