Good news for non-accelerated filers: The Securities and Exchange Commission has granted them more time to begin providing audited assessments of their internal controls over financial reporting as required under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, The SEC announced the extension today at the same time it published the findings of its long-awaited study on […]
Internal Controls
Posted inInternal Controls
Maintaining Efficiency, Despite Cutbacks
&“Doing more with less” sounds like a wise, if unwanted, business policy these days—right up until reckless cost-cutting alienates employees and weakens carefully crafted segregation of duties. In a prolonged recession, companies “want to make more thoughtful and strategic decisions to respond to these ongoing pressures,” Nik Shah, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, said during a […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Serious Control Weaknesses Land Barclays $4.09m Fine
U.K. regulator the Financial Services Authority has fined Barclays, the banking group, $4.09 million for a series of internal control and compliance breaches and warned other firms it will not tolerate such failings. The FSA fined Barclays a “significantly higher” penalty than it had done in similar cases in the past because its failings were […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Auditing Governance: It Can Be Done
A few columns ago, I posited the idea that you can develop an integrated approach to auditing corporate governance, risk, and compliance. First I explored auditing compliance, and the risk. Now I will conclude the series and explain (finally) how governance (the “G” in GRC) provides the foundation that binds these disciplines together in a […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Survey Sheds Light on Fraud Worries, Expectations
Given the economic downturn, record levels of government spending, and the uptick in enforcement, it’s not surprising most executives expect fraud and misconduct risks to stay the same or increase over the next year. That’s one finding from KPMG’s 2009 Fraud Survey, which polled more than 200 executives on the nature of fraud and misconduct […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Procurement Fraud Not Just for Large Contractors
While procurement fraud risks are often thought of as the domain of large federal contractors, small and mid-sized firms are at risk as well, and thanks to increased enforcement, the stakes are higher than ever. Recent changes to federal regulations; growth in federal, state, and local contracting activity; and vigorous enforcement activity mean increased procurement […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Amid Anxiety, Red Flag Rules Take Effect
The Federal Trade Commission’s compliance deadline for its so-called Red Flag Rules has finally arrived, requiring banks and other creditors to have written programs in place to find, stop, and mitigate theft of consumers’ personal data. The rules formally go into effect Aug. 1, after a three-month extension to give companies more time to find […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Help for Internal Auditors on PCI Compliance
A new report from the Institute of Internal Auditors says compliance with credit-card security standards is still sputtering, despite a coordinated push to bring retailers and merchant banks into compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The recent survey of internal auditors, “Moving Toward PCI Compliance,” indicates that only 56 percent of companies […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Audit Committees Feel “Very Effective,” Despite Crisis
The quality of corporate governance among the world’s leading companies has been widely criticized of late, with some blaming poor boardroom practice in the financial sector for the global downturn. But audit committee members around the world feel they have been doing a good job, according to a new KPMG survey: 89 percent rated themselves […]
