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March 24, 2008
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March 14, 2008
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March 05, 2008
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February 17, 2008
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February 01, 2008
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January 18, 2008
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January 16, 2008
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August 09, 2007
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August 01, 2007
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January 31, 2007
More than four years after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and long after the spectacular crash-and-burn displays of Enron, WorldCom, accounting giant Arthur Andersen and auto supplier Delphi, talk in Congress and among Securities and Exchange Commission honchos increasingly focuses on this question.
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December 15, 2006
The Transparency and Accountability Act, proclaimed today, will ensure greater openness and accountability of all government departments and public bodies.
“The Transparency and Accountability Act is a flagship piece of legislation for our government,” said the Honourable Danny Williams, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. “This act reflects our commitment to provide the legislative framework for the conduct of fiscal policy, better decision-making processes and most important, strengthened accountability, openness and transparency. We remain committed to ensuring that government is fully accountable to the people who have entrusted us to run the province.”
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December 13, 2006
Legislation Will Protect Whistleblowers and Restore Successor Rights
legislature has passed legislation introduced by the McGuinty government that will support and maintain a high standard of integrity for public servants while providing important protections public servants need to deliver high-quality services to Ontarians.
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December 12, 2006
Canada’s New Government followed through on a key promise today by delivering on its top priority – passing the Federal Accountability Act – as Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, granted Royal Assent to the Act in the Senate today.
“We promised to stand up for accountability and to change the way government works,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “Canadians elected this government to deliver on that commitment and today the Federal Accountability Act has received Royal Assent. From this day on, accountability in government is the law and we can all be proud of that fact.”
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November 29, 2006
HOW can it be that a federal government officer abuses his expense account, takes summers off but still collects compensation for unused vacation, does very little work for very much money, but doesn't get caught over a 26-year career?
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November 29, 2006
OTTAWA—Canada's auditor general says only about half the employees of federal public safety agencies believe their bosses would act on reports of misconduct. In a report yesterday, Sheila Fraser said workers need to know management will follow up on their whistle-blowing and preserve their confidentiality.
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September 29, 2006
Managers and auditors in Asia are becoming more aware of the need to protect employees who tip off on fraudulent activities in their workplace. This is according to industry players at the Institute of Internal Auditors Conference in Singapore on Friday.
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September 13, 2006
Privately owned companies, although not bound by the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), are feeling the effects of the law in specific areas of their businesses, as well as the impact of widespread public commitment to stronger internal controls that the law has helped to create. In response to these pressures, more closely held companies are demanding additional internal audits and internal auditors, as well as providing new business opportunities for external auditors.
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July 25, 2006
More firms in Singapore are making the push to embrace higher corporate governance standards. That is according to a recent survey organised by the Singapore Institute of Directors.
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July 06, 2006
When the FBI office in New Haven, Conn., received an e-mail in February 2005 that looked like a terrorist threat, agents followed a familiar routine. They asked the service provider, a group of Connecticut public libraries, for the real name, street address and Internet logs of the sender. They had no search warrant, grand jury subpoena or court order. Instead, a local FBI official hand-delivered a National Security Letter — one of more than 9,000 sent to finance, telephone and Internet companies last year — that described the records needed.
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June 06, 2006
Outsourcing in Canada is changing because of privacy laws, changes in government outsourcing policies and business concerns resulting from the USA PATRIOT Act. Increasingly, Canadian service providers are finding themselves with a competitive advantage simply because they keep their customers' data in Canada. Conversely, U.S.-based service providers are finding themselves at a disadvantage, often scrambling to move their data processing to Canada.
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June 01, 2006
As Enron’s former chief executive and chairman, Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay wait to hear whether they will spend the rest if their lives in jail, it became clear, in the UK at least, that the only verdict that would have surprised the profession was if the jury in Huston had returned a not guilty verdict. Instead, after five days of deliberation, the verdict came back as guilty on 25 of the 34 charges the pair faced in relation to the collapse of Enron in 2001. One Big Four partner tells Accountancy Age: ‘The biggest surprise would have been if the verdict had gone the other way, especially given the weight of evidence.’
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May 26, 2006
The Enron trial is over, but one of the biggest business collapses in U.S. history will affect corporations for years to come. Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted of conspiracy and fraud Thursday by a federal jury that laid blame squarely on Enron Corp.'s two former top executives. They are to learn their sentences on Sept. 11; each faces more than a hundred years in prison.
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May 23, 2006
Publicly traded companies are required to abide by ethical standards included in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. However, many private and not-for-profit organizations are voluntarily following suit. "It's become more of a norm as a good business practice," says Lisa R. Callaway, director of labor relations and general counsel for The Management Association of Illinois. A company facing criminal penalties as a result of financial corruption would likely face smaller penalties if it has met the seven requirements, according to Callaway.
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May 08, 2006
Technology has made the movement of information across borders quick and easy. It has led to concerns, however, as governments increasingly want to look at data.
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April 07, 2006
IN THE WAKE of a tightening of the labour market, attracting and retaining valued employees has become a central focus for many organizations.
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March 13, 2006
The government of Alberta in Canada has introduced a bill meant to stop "compelled disclosures" of personal information under America's Patriot Act. Bill 20 creates fines of up to $500,000 for violating local laws.
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March 12, 2006
Publicly traded companies will have to report on their accounting controls. All Canadian publicly traded companies would be forced to report on the effectiveness of their internal accounting controls after the end of next year under proposals announced yesterday by securities regulators.
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March 10, 2006
A survey among accountants has found that a majority are in favour of quarterly reporting and legislation to protect whistle-blowers. The survey, jointly conducted by CPA Australia and the NUS Business School, covered 3,000 members of the accounting body in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
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March 09, 2006
The consensus of executives interviewed for the March 2006 issue of CMA Management is straightforward: implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) mandated controls isn't an easy task, but the pay-off is a much more efficient organization - and a potential major competitive advantage over rivals that don't make a similar effort. The executives interviewed work at major companies that completed SOX implementations in 2005.
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January 10, 2006
Loyalty may seem like a quality that's becoming increasingly harder to find, whether it's employee loyalty to a company or consumer loyalty to a product.
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January 09, 2006
London Business School and Oracle today announced a center for corporate governance to lead international thinking and serve the needs of business and policymakers. The new center is backed by Oracle, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Prudential, and aims to provide independent research and recommendations of value to policy makers, corporations, investors and other interest groups.
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January 09, 2006
In the debut event for Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business Center for Corporate Governance, MCI CEO and President Michael D. Capellas told an audience of more than 160 how he instilled a culture of accountability, honesty and customer service to rebuild MCI after a $40 billion bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. business history, which followed the massive accounting fraud for which Bernard Ebbers was convicted.
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November 08, 2005
Companies that communicate effectively with their workers financially outperform those that do not, according to a major study of U.S. and Canadian employers by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a human capital consulting firm.
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November 03, 2005
Oversight Systems Inc. today announced the findings of the 2005 Oversight Systems Report on Corporate Fraud, a survey of certified fraud examiners. The report explains that most fraud examiners view Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) as an effective tool in fraud identification, though few think it will change the culture of business leaders.
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October 19, 2005
The problems at commodities and futures broker Refco Inc. that emerged over the past week made for another interesting case study in the debate over the necessity of the internal control provisions contained in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
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October 19, 2005
Nearly a third (31 percent) of U.S. workers have witnessed co-workers engage in ethical misconduct, according to a Hudson survey on workplace ethics. However, only half (52 percent) of those witnessing unethical or illegal acts reported it to anyone in authority. Despite these figures, nearly eight in ten U.S. workers (78 percent) state that their companies clearly communicate what they consider unethical and ethical behavior in the workplace.
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October 10, 2005
Complying with the Patriot Act is a top concern for boards of financial services firms, according to a survey of 210 board members conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers at its 2005 Financial Services Audit Committee Forum, held last week in New York. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed were audit committee members or chairs, who serve a crucial governance role in corporate oversight of compliance in today's post-Sarbanes-Oxley world.
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September 22, 2005
The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday gave small companies one more year to comply with costly rules that require them to assess the adequacy of their financial controls.
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September 22, 2005
Internal audit answered corporate America's call for help like no other business function during the first year of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. If not for the function's involvement in business process analysis, control testing, risk management, and forensic accounting, the business landscape would likely be littered with significantly more disclosures of material weaknesses and revelations of noncompliance with the law.
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September 08, 2005
ANYONE who thinks Sarbanes-Oxley will stop the next Enron should think again. Tough corporate laws are all very well, says ethicist Steve Salbu, but you can't legislate honesty. "I think it was good something was done legislatively and I think it was good, if for no other reason than to instil some confidence in the marketplace, but I really don't see Sarbanes-Oxley being a true impediment to another Enron," Professor Salbu said.
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July 31, 2005
David Windhauser speaks from experience when he says pursuing a whistle-blower complaint under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is not for the faint of heart.
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July 31, 2005
Theresa Hagman is different from other fired whistle-blowers who are able to get their jobs back under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: She doesn't want to go back to work for her former employer.
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July 08, 2005
Do corporate ethics programs make a difference? In a business world reflected in the media as a place where the rich get richer - and sometimes get prosecuted in the process - and where whistleblowers are vilified as tattletales, how does a company promote the ideal and the practice of "doing the right thing"? Can ethical behavior be legislated? Can it be taught?
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July 07, 2005
Almost every employer will face a discrimination claim someday. Federal, state and local laws protect nearly all employees from discrimination on the basis of gender, age, race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability or workplace injury. They also protect employees from discrimination for whistleblowing, having their pay garnished and submitting workers' compensation claims. And the list goes on.
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July 06, 2005
Euro-MPs expressed outrage yesterday over the treatment of an EU official driven from her job for exposing widespread fraud at the European Commission's Eurostat data office. So far, no Eurostat official has been punished for the diversion of ١m of taxpayer funds into illegal accounts over three years ago in a scam described as a "vast enterprise of looting" by investigators.
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June 28, 2005
Many organizations are failing when it comes to "upward communication" -- the feedback from employees to management -- according to the new Organizational Communication Survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and CareerJournal.com, The Wall Street Journal's executive career site.
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June 22, 2005
Improving controls and their documentation seems to be the major result fast-growing private companies are getting from applying provisions of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act to their business, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey of CEOs of 341 privately-held product and services companies. Updated governance procedures and strengthened codes of conduct and ethics are the other major reported benefits.
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June 21, 2005
Three years after the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 were passed, it has become clear that litigation of Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower cases differs in several critical respects from litigation of other employment disputes. This article will provide a brief overview of the Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower provisions, and then discuss how unique features of those provisions have led to results that would be unusual in other types of employment litigation.
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June 09, 2005
The work isn't done. In fact, the hardest task may still lie ahead. That's the prediction of Isaac Hunt, a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission who was in town Thursday discussing the outlook for corporate governance. In 2002, Congress changed the law. Now, Hunt says, we have to change attitudes. Corporate cultures can't be legislated. Reforming them requires sending a persistent message that businesses must be vigilant in monitoring their corporate conduct.
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May 27, 2005
Around a quarter of Section 404 filers are expected to receive failing grades, according to the newest internal controls research conducted by AuditAnalytics.com, a provider of industry research and market intelligence.
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May 24, 2005
WASHINGTON - The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence met today to consider legislation that would reauthorize - and expand - the Patriot Act. The American Civil Liberties Union denounced attempts to expand, rather than critically review and reform, the controversial provisions set to expire at the end of the year. A proposal to make the law’s most controversial provisions permanent, and to expand it by allowing FBI agents issue their own search orders with no advance court approval, will likely be voted on in secret Thursday.
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May 06, 2005
Regularity compliance has always been an important part of the cost of running a business. Most market sectors, from healthcare and financial services to industrial manufacturing, are all subject to compliance and regulation by legislation and statute laws that impose demands on how they should conduct business and clearly state the penalties for non-compliance.
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May 01, 2005
Despite the cloak of secrecy surrounding the Patriot Act, Congress is expected to extend provisions for hunting terrorists that were approved in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001.
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April 14, 2005
The CFA Centre for Financial Market Integrity, the thought-leadership and policy-setting arm of CFA Institute, today released The Corporate Governance of Listed Companies: A Manual for Investors, which is a comprehensive guide to help analysts and investors around the world assess a company's corporate governance policies and the associated risks they need to consider before making investment decisions. The document also can be used by issuers of financial securities to develop a better understanding of what investors are looking for in well-governed companies. Specifically, the manual lists what investors and shareowners should consider in terms of board practices, management practices and shareowner rights as they evaluate whether the company's corporate governance structure creates risks that could affect shareowner wealth.
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April 14, 2005
Can the quality of corporate governance determine stock performance over time? S&P says yes -- and points to 10 examples. Ever since the fallout of financial scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and other well-known and lesser-known companies, investors have been paying more attention to corporate governance than at any other time in history. But little, in Standard & Poor's view, has been said about how to incorporate the evaluation of governance into an investment strategy -- and whether it even pays off to do so.
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April 12, 2005
Oversight Systems Inc. today announced the results of the 2005 Oversight Systems Financial Executive Report on Sarbanes-Oxley, a survey of more than 200 financial executives. Nearly half of financial executives feel the biggest issue related to SOX compliance is the need to maintain the morale of the employees responsible for compliance. Reducing internal and external costs ranked as the second most frequently cited challenge to ongoing compliance.
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March 16, 2005
The accounting scandals of 2001 and thereafter have had far-reaching ramifications. Governments have introduced new legislation, new codes of conduct have been developed and corporate boards have been 're-balanced' to include more independent members. The three most important aspects of CR for the executives surveyed were ethical staff behaviour (67%), good corporate governance (58%) and transparency (51%). For institutional investors, transparency was the top concern (68%), followed by high standards of corporate governance (62%) and ethical staff behaviour (46%). Labour practices received a much lower score among investors (23%) than among executives (44%).
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March 11, 2005
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has extended the deadline for non US companies to comply with a vital clause of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to July 2006.
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March 07, 2005
Corporate governance in the UK scored highest among 23 nations in the latest survey by an international governance rating agency, while 34 of the 3,220 companies rated a perfect 10. Japan and Greece ranked at the bottom of the country ratings, GMI said. Canada was second and governance in the United States was third, followed by Australia and Ireland.
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February 02, 2005
Each year, the Great Place to Work® Institute produces various Best Companies lists in the U.S. including Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For"® in America. Companies are selected for the Best Companies lists primarily on the basis of their employees' responses to the Great Place to Work® Trust Index®, a proprietary employee survey developed by the Great Place to Work® Institute. Further information used for selection to the list is provided by completion of the Great Place to Work® Culture Audit©, a two part management questionnaire, also developed by the Great Place to Work® Institute.
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January 31, 2005
The Institute of Corporate Directors ("ICD") today announced the winners of its 2005 Fellowship Awards. Annually, the ICD recognizes directors who have distinguished themselves by bringing sound governance leadership to Canadian boardrooms. "Recognizing and paying tribute to the 'best of the best' directors in Canada is important because good corporate governance is increasingly being viewed as a competitive advantage to attract capital," said Bernie Wilson, Chair of the ICD and Vice-Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Canada would benefit greatly from more directors like these, champions of best practices in governance."
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January 27, 2005
LONDON -- William Donaldson, chairman of the SEC, said earlier this week that the commission might push back the July 2005 deadline for compliance with Section 404 to about four or five months. 'I have asked the staff of the commission to consider whether to recommend that we delay the effective date of internal controls of financial reporting requirements for non-US companies,' Donaldson announced at the London School of Economics.
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January 27, 2005
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that Thomas Trauger, 42, was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and undergo two years of supervised release for his part in altering and falsifying accounting records with the intent to impede a federal investigation.
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January 25, 2005
Canadian organizations are missing a significant opportunity to gain a competitive advantage through building productive engagement in the workforce, according to a new survey of employee attitudes by leading Canadian human capital consultancy Watson Wyatt Canada. The Watson Wyatt WorkCanada 2004/2005 survey shows employers must work harder to engage and enable employees to drive productivity and business results.
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January 24, 2005
With the demise of Arthur Andersen well in the past and increased government regulation of public companies’ accounting practices, accounting professionals, particularly CPAs, are in high demand and employers are shelling out plenty to get them.
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January 18, 2005
In corporate history, few executives have helped create - and then presided over the destruction of - as much wealth as Bernard Ebbers, the former chairman of WorldCom.
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January 14, 2005
Former Nortel Networks chief executive Frank Dunn and his financial executives are alleged to have manipulated their company's accounts -- only a few months after the passage in mid-2002 of the Sarbanes-Oxley bill in the U.S. This is the landmark legislation that compels chief executives to certify their company's accounts are accurate or risk substantial penalties.
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January 11, 2005
Over the past year, corporate governance has become a phrase that is bandied about by all and is sending shivers down the spines of corporate executives worldwide. Sarbanes-Oxley is the piece of legislation that most large companies are worried about – it was intended to improve the transparency with which public companies in the US conduct their businesses, but even private companies in the US are feeling pressure to comply with its requirements.
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January 09, 2005
Corporate board members are likely to be far more diligent in monitoring executive perfomance, now that 10 former WorldCom board members have reportedly agreed to pay $18 million US out of their own pockets as part of a shareholder lawsuit settlement. However, experts warned Thursday that some business leaders may forego serving altogether due to the liability risk.
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December 22, 2004
The year in professional services was marked largely by concerns over new privacy legislation and increasing demands on corporate governance.
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December 21, 2004
Georgia public companies worried that the 109th Congress will toughen the Sarbanes-Oxley Act when legislators reconvene in Washington Jan. 4 have some good news and some bad news, according to corporate governance expert Joe D. Goodwin of Atlanta. "The good news is Congress apparently is not going to re-open Sarbanes-Oxley in order to toughen it up."
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December 02, 2004
Almost two-thirds of the largest companies are fully compliant with the combined code on corporate governance and their smaller peers are catching up fast, according to research by accountants Grant Thornton.
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December 01, 2004
Most U.S. companies - although not the largest ones - were given a reprieve Tuesday from requirements imposed in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals that they and their auditors certify that the companies' internal financial controls are adequate.
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December 01, 2004
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday extended its deadline for internal control reporting for some companies liable to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act, extending the time they have to get IT their systems in order.
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November 30, 2004
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today issued an exemptive order to grant certain accelerated filers up to an additional 45 days to include in their annual reports management’s report on internal control over financial reporting and the related auditor’s report on management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting.
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November 30, 2004
As audit committees struggle implementing the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, fewer than one-third implement a majority of practices that lead to higher ratings of the financial audit process, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2004 Audit Committee Best Practices Report(SM) released today.
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November 29, 2004
The first real test of Sarbanes-Oxley, hurriedly passed a Congressional knee-jerk reaction to massive blue chip fraud at Enron, Worldcom, now part of MCI, Inc. (MCIP), Tyco (TYC), HealthSouth and others, is coming.
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November 03, 2004
The UK’s Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Bill has received Royal Assent and will help protect Britain against Enron style corporate scandals - as well as creating a new type of company specifically designed for social enterprises.
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October 25, 2004
The FRC has today published for comment a draft guide to UK and Irish companies registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the use of the Turnbull report to comply with SEC requirements to report on internal controls over financial reporting.
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October 21, 2004
"Like you can't legislate for morality, you can't legislate for good behaviour." These were the words of Wes Rehm, senior vice president for SAS, pointing out that all the business intelligence and management software in the world plus the most obedient adherence to the letter of Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance laws will not eliminate fraud and corporate corruption altogether. "But it will raise the bar," he added, during an interview with silicon.com earlier this week.
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October 19, 2004
The Internal Market Commissioner has announced the creation of a European Forum comprising 15 corporate governance experts. Its role is to foster the exchange of best practice among Member States.
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October 19, 2004
Acquisition activity is slowing because of companies' concerns over Sarbanes Oxley compliance at target businesses, according to new research.
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October 15, 2004
Only about one third - 34 per cent - of board members and top executives believe that their companies are proficient at monitoring critical non-financial indicators of corporate performance, according to a new report.
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October 10, 2004
Treasury Board President Reg Alcock has reintroduced whistleblower legislation in Parliament aimed at protecting public servants who disclose wrongdoing.
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October 05, 2004
Slow progress on corporate governance and the government crackdown on OAO Yukos have shaken investor confidence in Russia, concludes a study by a global association of financial institutions.
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September 23, 2004
A.R.C. Morgan has released the findings of their European Companies Sarbanes-Oxley Benchmarking survey - the survey indicates that more than 69 percent of European companies interviewed are only at the very early stages of planning their Sarbanes-Oxley section 404 project. The survey also reveals that European companies are not paying heed to the whistleblower provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
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September 14, 2004
U.S. companies have taken top honors in a global comparison of corporate governance standards, surpassing the U.K. and Canada. The study confirms a link between share price performance and adherence to corporate governance principles. GMI said the shares of the top 26 companies in the survey outperformed the S&P 500 by 10% over five years.
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August 17, 2004
As the Sarbanes-Oxley Act marks its second anniversary, Deloitte & Touche LLP, one of the nation's leading professional services firms, says many public companies are struggling to meet the upcoming compliance deadline for reporting on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, as required under section 404 of the law.
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August 15, 2004
Rising costs, more frequent director meetings identified in Sarbanes-Oxley study. With the first real test of public company accounting reforms four months away, corporate boards are moving deliberately, working hard and staying put.
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August 14, 2004
Corporate governance is a state of mind. We need rules, but all the rules in the world don't lead to ethical behavior and good corporate governance. Given the scandals of recent times, if the business community is going to change skeptical public and political attitudes toward business and those running corporations, the business community needs to exercise its own ethical muscle.
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August 09, 2004
A recent survey of senior financial executives found most mid-size US public and private companies are having difficulties achieving the key corporate governance requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. Many of the survey findings show companies are still relying on old practices that are not in line with today's higher corporate governance standards.
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August 02, 2004
SEC, Federal Reserve Board, U.S. Sentencing Commission, U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. Department of Justice representatives will Address Corporate Leaders at National Symposium on Corporate Responsibility organized by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, in collaboration with Microsoft Corporation
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July 30, 2004
For U.S. public companies, complying with the new corporate governance rules of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been about as unpleasant as doing one's taxes -- it's hard, it's a pain, it takes a lot of time, and sometimes help is needed. Oh, and there's also a due date, which needs to be met -- or else. For many companies, that date is November 15: less than 4 months away.
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July 14, 2004
By a margin of nearly two to one, large U.S. companies have made compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act part of their regular corporate governance approach and have integrated it with other regulatory activities, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Management Barometer.
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July 08, 2004
US regulators have come down hard on companies to avoid a repeat of multi-billion dollar disasters like Enron, Andersen and Worldcom. But European companies are now getting caught up in US red tape too. Senior executives of Europe's largest companies face the prospect of huge fines and lengthy jail sentences if their firms do not comply with tough new US laws designed to prevent a repeat of the corporate scandals that this week saw former Enron boss Kenneth Lay indicted.
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July 07, 2004
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the leading provider of anti-fraud training and education worldwide, announced today the release of the 2004 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, a comprehensive report that sheds light on occupational fraud and abuse while offering stark lessons and valuable insights about its prevention and detection. Based on 2004 report findings, the typical organization loses 6% of its annual revenues to occupational fraud. If multiplied by the US Gross Domestic Product, which in 2003 totaled just under $11 trillion, it would translate into $660 billion in annual fraud losses.
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June 30, 2004
Whistle-blowers may pay a heavy price, but Lynn Brewer, a former executive at the US energy titan, would do it all again. She believes other Enrons' loom ... Long before this was made public and become the sensational "Enron scandal", Brewer was working with class action lawyers and calling the US government to blow the whistle. Brewer blew the whistle five times. Every time, her concerns were dismissed.
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June 22, 2004
After a series of mutual fund scandals broke last year in the United States, the main message from the Canadian industry was that things were different here. We had better safeguards, and investors were better protected against abuse. Back in December -- as U.S. regulators seemed to be exposing wrongdoing daily -- industry spokesman Tom Hockin said Canadians "should be encouraged by the differences in the systems, procedures and structure of our markets."
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June 16, 2004
Sir, Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley are right to stick to their guns ("Sarbanes and Oxley hit back at critics", June 14) and scorn the moans of assorted chief executives about the cost of implementing the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). The argument that SOX is discouraging new New York Stock Exchange listings is spurious - the European Union is drafting a European equivalent for SOX, as are a number of other legislatures around the world.
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June 15, 2004
Companies with good corporate governance outperform." That's the investment guideline of James H. Huguet, co-CEO and chief investment officer of Great Companies -- and his Great Companies America fund (IGAAX) has proven that rule by doing better than the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index since its inception.
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June 15, 2004
Apparently a very large American corporation, who I will not name, asked their internal audit department to review their compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), especially section 404 which starts to kick in this year. They failed through lack of controls in the IT department and now the CIO's neck is on the block. Before you stop reading this because it is just a US problem, remember that if you are part of a subsidiary of a US corporation or even if you have some relationship you will be bound by SOX. Secondly, similar legislation is appearing in other jurisdictions including Europe. Thirdly, the principles behind SOX will become part of corporate good practice in any event.
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June 14, 2004
It is interesting to note that at least one of the credit rating agencies, Standard and Poor (S&P), has commenced scoring companies for corporate governance. Currently, this activity is confined to some of the large European multi-national companies. Presumably, this new stream of business has commenced on the basis that corporate governance will become as important an influence as credit ratings in assessing the financial strength and investment value of a company.
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June 10, 2004
Largely as a by-product |
