Internal Controls

If Section 404 is requiring more effort than predicted, you’re not alone. Nearly three-quarters of Sarbanes-Oxley project leaders recently acknowledged that they’ve seen an increase in the level of effort required to comply with internal control provisions. That’s according to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers at a Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Compliance conference last week. According […]

My eldest daughter came home from university for the holidays complaining loudly about her last business exam in management sciences. She claimed the exam had been ridiculously hard and didn’t think she had done very well. On the bright side however, she thought most of her classmates had also “tanked” the exam. The professor would […]

Every month, Compliance Week staffers scour SEC filings for disclosures of material weaknesses or “significant deficiencies” in internal controls. According to regulatory filings, 14 companies disclosed such weaknesses during the month of December, representing a 27 percent increase from the 11 firms who reported the same during November. The previous November survey is available in […]

As public company executives surely know by now, Sections 302 and 404 of SOX require public companies to establish, implement and evaluate their internal controls for purposes of financial statement reporting and operational integrity. Outside auditors must attest to management’s assessment. In doing so, both parties would be — in theory — demonstrating to shareholders […]

Instances of fraud have risen 13 percent since 1998, but companies are taking more proactive measures to counter fraud than ever before. According to KPMG’s Fraud Survey 2003, company management is taking a more active approach in detecting fraud through internal controls and internal audits (see chart). In fact, over 75 percent of the organizations […]

On Oct. 7, The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board unanimously voted to propose and issue for public comment a standard on an audit of “internal control over financial reporting.” The Board also unanimously voted to propose and issue for public comment a rule which clearly defines terms used in auditing to assist firms in complying […]

A recent survey of 300 public company CFOs by internal audit and risk consulting firm Protiviti provides some interesting insights into the changes happening at U.S. public companies after Sarbanes-Oxley. According to the survey, 34 percent of responding CFOs considered the Act’s internal control and executive certification requirements (Sections 404 and 302, respectively) the most […]

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers most recent Management Barometer survey, most U.S. multinational companies are moving ahead with preparations for compliance with internal financial control provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, even though implementation of the provisions has been delayed by a year. In addition, more than a third of those firms are are moving faster […]

It seems like the assumption behind the COSO Risk Management Framework is that there is no commonly accepted definition of “risk management,” and no comprehensive framework for processes. That is the assumption, and that is based on our research; we have not found anything out there that is a generally-accepted framework. There are lots of […]