Overnight, it seems Sarbanes-Oxley reforms have elevated the role and responsibility of audit committees while taking aim at the c-suite with tough new rules calling for increased accountability from top company executives.
The changes wrought by SARBOX do not stop there. Corporate disclosure, compliance oversight, controls monitoring, company training, and the practice of public accounting all have been impacted by Sarbanes-Oxley.
Clearly, the Act's reforms are far-reaching. Most companies, however, face an immediate, and in some cases, grave compliance concern related to SARBOX rule 404. The rule requires management to assess the effectiveness of the company's internal controls over financial reporting and include its findings in the company's annual report to shareholders. However, based on a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers global survey of analysts, investors, and rating agencies, only 10% of the respondents believe that rule 404 will achieve its principal objective of reducing investors' overall risk. This perception may well be linked to the generally low level of understanding of rule 404. Such market uncertainty could translate into a significant loss in value as markets punish any oversight by selling and downgrading shares.
If this is your situation
- You have identified potential controls issues requiring remediation and additional manpower to test your controls.
- You require additional technical expertise to plan and deliver a major controls project.
- Your initial attempts at documenting and evaluating controls have produced inconsistent, often poor quality results and your staff need support.
- You want to know how to derive the greatest value from your efforts.
- You want to understand what constitutes best practice in this area.
How PricewaterhouseCoopers can help you
For Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) - registered organizations, whether subsidiaries of US domestic registrants or foreign private investors that need to comply with the requirements of section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, PricewaterhouseCoopers provides a range of services to help you achieve compliance.
Our advisory services include project management assistance, technical support, determining the risk assessment and scoping activities, assisting in documentation and evaluation efforts, training, quality assurance, and review. For non-audit clients, PricewaterhouseCoopers can also provide direct assistance in the evaluation and remediation of controls.
- Project management
- Technical support including scoping, documentation, evaluation, and reporting
- Risk assessment
- Change management
- Training and training materials
- Control environment assistance
- Documentation support
- Design and execution of solutions
- Quality assurance and review activities
- Process improvement
