Verified Document

Sarbanes-Oxley Act In Tackling Corporate Scandals And Frauds Research Paper

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 The accounting profession was entangled in the accounting and business scandals whirlwind that rocked the American economy in 2002. To recover investor confidence in financial data, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act designed a new Oversight Board for public Company accounting with the power to set requirements for auditors of public organizations, thus bringing to an end a century of export control of audit. We determine that this reform results in an important loss of the professional position of auditors, which also affects other categories in the wider accounting career.

Significance of the Act

Between 2001 and 2002, a sequence of accounting frauds was discovered at major organizations. Consequently, the bubble burst sending investor confidence and stock prices are plummeting. The part of auditors in these frauds led to a deepening issue with the potency of professional self-regulation. High-profile business problems translating into a media fixation of Enron questioned the potency of the profession's self-regulatory process and the potency of the audit to maintain the public trust in the capital marketplaces. Legislation to deal with the disadvantages in financial reporting was advancing in the legislature, and the unexpected exposure and failure of WorldCom assured instant congressional action. The then U.S. president, Bush endorsed into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. It has been among the significant legislation affecting the accounting career since 1933 (Warren, 2011).

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act confiscated the capability of auditors to understand their part in society. In fact, when the PCAOB implemented the professional and auditing requirements that had been designed for many years by the AICPA, and that choice was accepted by the SEC,...

The changes brought by the Sarbanes-Oxley act lay open the accounting career to improve government management through the PCAOB takeover of establishing audit requirements, professional reviews, and correcting expert practice associated with offerings in public securities (Fletcher & Plette, 2008). It symbolizes a serious risk to the expert position of auditors because independence from the power of others over their work is one of the interpreting features of careers. The management is the core to the sustaining perception that expert activities are useful and are the foundation for the work market protection or government subsidized service monopoly.
Effects on auditing procedures and financial reporting

The SOX needs a thorough second associate evaluation and acceptance of every audit record for SEC filers. This type of evaluation has been a need for CPA ?rms from the SEC exercise area for a period. In the SEC practice section, membership is needed of all CPA ?rms that audit SEC ?lters. Whether the needed second associate evaluation under SOX will be more extensive and effective than the present SEC practice requirements is difficult to evaluate even on a priori foundation. The SOX also needs that management represents about the potency of its inner control framework. Moreover, the auditor will be needed to do a separate and complete review of the inner control representations made by management. Any significant weak points in management's inner control framework must be recorded in this individual review on inner control.

The impact of the above changes on the chances of audit failure seems to be minimal. An evaluation of the traditional audit failures, which…

Sources used in this document:
References

De, L., & Argosy University. (2006). The Effectiveness of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in preventing and detecting fraud in financial statements: A dissertation. Boca Raton: *****.

Fletcher, W.H., & Plette, T.N. (2008). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Implementation, significance, and impact. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Warren, C.S. (2011). Accounting: Chapters 1-13. California: Cengage Learning.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Administration As Also
Words: 2828 Length: 9 Document Type: Essay

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 administration as also a majority of other western administration witnessed the collapse of corporate giants like Enron & Worldcom in the aftermath of noticeably fraudulent executive actions of these companies. This led to shareholders losing confidence and stringent laws was felt necessary in the form of new legislation to avoid repetition of Enron and Worldcom like incidents. The then President George W. Bush entrusted Senator Paul

Corporate Governance: A Review of Literature What
Words: 6769 Length: 20 Document Type: Essay

Corporate Governance: A review of Literature What is Corporate Governance? Principles of Corporate Governance Theoretical foundations of corporate governance Agency theory Stewardship theory Stakeholder theory Post-Enron theories Corporate Governance: The changing trends Recent developments on regulatory front and research Corporate Governance: Relationship with market indicators Venture Capital Model: Impact on Corporate Governance Appendix I- Examples of Corporate Governing bodies This paper is a review of pertinent literature on corporate governance. Corporate governance addresses the control issues created due to the separation of ownership

Tyco International Is a Worldwide Manufacturing Company
Words: 3553 Length: 10 Document Type: Essay

Tyco International is a worldwide manufacturing company that is involved in production of various products since its inception in the 1960s. The company is currently divided into five main business segments which are Safety Products, ADT Worldwide, Flow Control, Fire Protection Services as well as Electrical and Metal Products. Furthermore, the company recently split its corporate sections into three independent companies i.e. Tyco Healthcare, Tyco International Ltd. And Tyco Electronics

Ethical and Legal Obligations in Financial Reporting
Words: 1865 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

Ethical and Legal obligations in financial reporting is extremely important in today's world, fraught as it is with corporate frauds and accounting scams and scandals of every other sort. One Company, the Thornburg Investment Company, has taken a firm stand on financial reporting within its company, wherein all concerned officials are expected to report accurately, any actual, as well as suspected violations and breaches in the laws and rules and

Requiring Ethnics Training to Employees Is Simply a Dog and Pony...
Words: 2443 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

Ethics Training for Employees "Recently we have become aware of massive fraud and abuses that are tolerated and even encouraged by executives in large and formerly reputable organizations" (Lee, 2004). The Enron scandal sent ricochets through corporate America, causing literally thousands of people to lose their jobs and sending a major city into a deeper recession than that experienced by the rest of the country. Even seemingly minor corporate scandals

Saudi Arabia and Auditing Standards
Words: 6569 Length: 15 Document Type: Literature Review Chapter

audit committee characteristics affect firm performance in Saudi Arabia? What are audit committees? Many studies have been carried out to demonstrate the manner in which audit committees reports affect the overall performance of companies in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the world. The interest in conducting audit of accounts in different firms peaked in the early 1960's. Two main approaches of doing accounts investigations have emerged in financial literature. The first

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now