Here’s proof that many companies will likely welcome the SOX 404 delay: it’s taking them longer to close their books. Roth According to research conducted by The Hackett Group, a division of $132 million benchmarking firm Answerthink, companies now take 5.5 days to close their books each month, up five percent from last year. According […]
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Posted inEthics & Culture
Editorial: Driving Business Ethics: Regulations, Or A Higher Calling?
Last spring, at a conference on Nantucket I co-founded back in 1999, I had the pleasure of running a session on ethics with Harvard Business School research fellow Laura Nash. A noted author and commentator on business ethics, Nash has spent much of the last three decades training senior directors and officers at Fortune 100 […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Internal Controls: A New Enforcement Frontier?
When crises of corporate conduct reveal widespread shortcomings in public company disclosure, lawmakers and regulators turn to questions of internal controls. Dissatisfied with the output of corporate reporting, they tinker with its inputs and the processes that connect the one to the other. With the new certification and attestation requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, this […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
$1.9 Billion E*Trade Appoints Its First Chief Risk Officer
New York-based financial services company E*Trade recently announced the appointment of James Bidwell to the newly created position of chief risk officer. Bidwell, formerly the company’s VP of corporate strategy, will be responsible for coordinating an enterprise-wide system for strategy and organizational planning, internal audit, asset protection, liability management and cost containment while ensuring risk […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
$15 Billion Qwest Communications Adds Two Directors
Brooksher Denver-based Qwest Communications recently announced two new board appointments, bringing membership to 14 for the first time since 2002. The new directors are Charles Biggs, retired senior partner at Deloitte Consulting; and K. Dane Brooksher, chairman and CEO of $679 million real estate investment trust ProLogis. Brooksher served with KPMG Peat Marwick for more […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
$9 Billion Avnet Names New Corporate Secretary
Hardwick Phoenix-based electronic components distributor Avnet recently promoted Catherine Hardwick to corporate secretary and associate general counsel. Hardwick, who joined Avnet in 2001 and previously served as a partner with Meyer, Hendricks, Victor, Osborn & Maledon, is responsible for providing legal support in the areas of securities law compliance, finance and corporate reporting and record-keeping. […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Link Between Executive Comp. And Accounting Fraud?
Professors at the business schools of the University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and University of North Carolina study 50 frauds at companies like WorldCom and Enron, only to discover that “the probability of accounting fraud is increasing in the percent of total executive compensation that is stock-based.”
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Certifying Internal Controls — A Trap for the Unwary?
A great deal of frenzy currently surrounds the Sarbanes-Oxley requirement that public companies assess, and their outside auditors attest to, the effectiveness of the company’s internal controls. To paraphrase Epicetus, “[w]hat concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.” Most companies seem to be adopting one of […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
$36.8 Billion Tyco Promotes New Corporate Secretary
Bermuda-based Tyco International recently promoted Judith Reinsdorf from assistant secretary to vice president and corporate secretary. Reinsdorf, who joined Tyco in 2003 after serving as assistant secretary to the board at Pharmacia (now Pfizer), will be responsible for coordinating all corporate secretarial activities throughout Tyco’s subsidiaries. She will also work with the company’s board to […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Common SOX 302/404 Mistake: Not Assessing Controls Over Notes And Supplemental Disclosures
One of the most common mistakes we still see in practice is too narrow an interpretation of what is covered by Section 302 and 404 control effectiveness representations. Many companies appear to be under the mistaken impression that these representations relate only to the accounting processes that feed disclosures in balance sheets and income statements. […]