As companies race toward the Nov. 15 deadline for the internal control provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley—ubiquitously known as “SOX 404”—the last thing on most compliance executives’ minds is next year’s compliance requirements. INGREDIENTS According to experts, there are three core elements to ongoing compliance—people, process, and technology. 1. People According to Stephen Wagner, chairman of the […]
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Posted inFrom the Archive
Editorial: When Graded On Its Own Rules, SEC Fails Miserably
SEC chairmen, including current chair William Donaldson, have had a propensity to quote Justice Louis Brandeis in speeches. So allow me to throw one back at the Commission: “Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.” Contrary to Brandeis’ counsel, however, if the […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Corporate Governance Practices At The Fortune 100
36-page analysis of 2004 trends in the corporate governance practices of the Fortune 100.
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
The Myners Principles And Ooccupational Pension Schemes
UK study researched whether pensions have voluntarily changed their investment decision-making practices as recommended by The Myners Principles.
Posted inFrom the Archive
SEC Will Track Environmental Disclosures
According to a new report from the GAO, the SEC has agreed to improve the way it tracks environmental disclosures from public companies. The report comes on the heels of a 2003 U.N. Summit on Climate Risk, which emphasized the importance of environmental disclosure. Shortly after the event, a group of the nation’s largest institutional […]
Posted inInternal Controls
SOX 404 Remediation, Improvement Efforts Exposed; Deadline A Problem
Despite the fact that the internal control provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley become effective in less than four months, public companies are still struggling to meet the deadline and make the necessary improvements to comply. In addition, most companies are not even tracking the money being spent on Sarbanes-Oxley related improvements to systems and procedures, making it […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Boards Should Not Neglect Open Source Software Compliance
As directors and executives at U.S. public companies, we’ve all got plenty of items to worry about—risk assessment, internal controls, stock option expensing, and the litany of other governance and compliance issues. Unfortunately, I’ve just discovered another. Fortune Magazine recently ran a cover story that discussed SCO Group’s lawsuit against IBM, claiming ownership of portions […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Internal Controls Get Poor Detection Marks; Numbers Misleading
In a recent study, The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners presented findings that bring to light a number of questions about the effectiveness—or seeming ineffectiveness—of internal controls as a detection measure for financial statement fraud and abuse. According to the ACFE’s 2004 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, which looked at the […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
ICGN Conference: Corporate Governance Benefits Business
Sound corporate governance is good for shareholders and corporations alike, lowering the cost of capital, reducing risk, and helping businesses prosper, especially in turnarounds. And constructive engagement is far better than an adversarial relationship between investors, corporations, and their boards. Like a samba refrain, those themes sounded throughout the 10th annual International Corporate Governance Network […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Did the SEC Reward Stand-By Systems For Cooperating?
Did the Securities and Exchange Commission let off the hook a company it had charged with wrongdoing because it cooperated with an investigation? It sure seems like it at first glance. Last week, the regulator announced that Judge Barefoot Sanders, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas, entered an order dismissing the […]
