Turning into a whistleblower is a fraught decision. Once it happens, you can expect some form of retaliation. Many would say doing the right thing is not necessarily the right thing to do in terms of...

Average compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley has now hit $1.7 million for big companies with average annual revenues of $4.7 billion. And while compliance costs are actually slipping, that hasn't...

In case you missed it, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board had its fifth birthday last week on April 25.So to help celebrate, Sarah Johnson at CFO.com reviews its short life life by the...

Much has been said about Sarbanes-Oxley stopping backdating. But is that true? Has it actually improved corporate governance?Under Sarbanes-Oxley, all high-level executive stock option grants and...

After the US Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, US companies were forced to overhaul their systems of corporate governance. A raft of changes were introduced. Auditors were required...

Drugmaker Biovail's $10 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle some seriously bad fraud charges makes fascinating reading. And it's a lesson for anyone who...

There has been a dramatic increase in restatements over the last few years. It's been estimated that the number made in 2006 was three times the amount from 2003. But what's driving the...

So a new survey commissioned by the Center for Audit Quality has found that most audit committee members believe audit quality is superior post-Sarbanes Oxley. According to the survey, 53 percent of...

The subprime crisis has some eerie parallels with Enron and WorldCom, say the two Sarbox co-authors.In an interview with the Indian media, they say what's needed is more regulation....

Welcome to the nightmare. The biggest gripe about Section 404 controls is that they will not get easier and will not reduce over time. No matter how long companies have to get used to it.Now five...

How bad is the relationship between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board? What are the tensions? Can they actually work together to protect the...

Hat tip to the Whistleblowers Protection website for alerting us to a court ruling that a former senior employee of global consulting firm Accenture, who was stationed in Paris, can sue for damages...

Thought provoking piece Criminalizing Capitalism from Nicole Gelinas on the limitations of Sarbanes-Oxley.Gelinas makes the point that Sarbanes-Oxley not only failed to stop the subprime meltdown...

In their haste to pass Sarbanes-Oxley into law following the spate of scandals headed up by Enron, politicians and regulators neglected to look carefully at the issue of whistleblowers. Who actually...

Another sign that the Securities and Exchange Commission is pulling back from Sarbanes-Oxley. On Friday, the SEC announced that it's giving yet another delay to the implementation of...

With Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox last month announcing a one-year delay in imposing Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 requirements for small public companies - something that...

Earlier this month, I did a blog entry explaining why Sarbanes-Oxley was unlikely to get overhauled in the near future. Simply put, businesses and auditors are getting used to it and getting rid of...

The supply chain is never the sexiest of topics. But it's become absolutely critical in a global economy where consumers have more power and where pressures for accountability are growing. So...

Interesting data coming out suggests that Sarbanes-Oxley is unlikely to be overhauled. That's despite the jury still out on its effectiveness.But a study released last week by Protiviti has found...

When Sarbanes-Oxley was introduced in 2002, it was supposed to enhance investor protection by improving the quality of information and increasing the transparency of corporations. Now a new study has...