Auditing Cases

A ) The objective of an audit is to safeguard agreeability with the customer's work benchmarks, assess execution and amplify benefits. Clearly, regardless of how skilful the auditor is, auditing every record is a physical outland possibility. Regardless of the possibility that 100 percent of the data could be tried, the expense of testing would likely surpass the normal advantages (the confirmation that goes with analysing 100 percent of the aggregate to be inferred. What is needed is an examining of the records. There are various techniques used by auditor for decision making during auditing. Auditors will not test all the information available to them because they are uneconomical

Enron Corporation was once known as Northern Natural Gas Company, Founded in 1932 in Omaha, Nebraska as a provider of natural gas. Through its early stages, Northern Natural Gas Company was unsuccessful in their business venture. They experienced problems in persuading consumers to use natural gas to heat their homes because of fear that natural gas leaks lead to explosions. Thanks to the great depression, many people were taking the risk because of how relatively cheap natural gas was. As the company’s revenues and profit grew, northern began to acquire many of its smaller competitors resulting in their apparent growth as a company. In 1947 its stock was listed on the New York stock exchange, providing the company with more finances which it needed to continue its growth in acquiring its competitors to becoming the largest natural gas supplier in the United States.

Overstock is currently audited by the CPA Firm KPMG LLP and has been since 2009. According to the proxy statement pursuant to schedule 14A KPMG’s aggregate audit fees for 2012 and 2011 were $1,037,000 and $1,092,000 respectively; all of which were approved by the audit committee. The amounts of $40,000 in 2012 and 21,000 is 2011 were related to the audits for Overstocks 401k benefit plan. Additionally, $88,000 in 2012 and $96,000 in 2011 were related to tax services, and 221,000 in 2012 were related to a cloud-based consulting project.

Prior to 2002, financial statement reporting for publically traded companies within the United States was overseen with far less oversight in comparison to current reporting standards and procedures. Appropriate financial reporting is merely one element that was not occurring prior to 2002. An element of corporate dishonesty and deception existed within some the largest publically traded companies and this idea of deceitfulness was perpetuated by the executive staff of the businesses. Enron’s financial disintegration became the facilitator for the need of more rigid financial oversight, but they were not the only company that added to the idea of corporate fraud.

You are the internal audit senior responsible for conducting an assurance engagement of the XYZ Company payroll process. This process has not been audited for three years and, as such, is due in the normal audit cycle. There have been no significant changes since the previous audit, that is, there were no system changes, no reorganization of personnel, and no substantive procedural changes. However, during the last assurance engagement, the internal audit function identified several observations, some of which were considered significant. The significant observations related to:

Enron’s history dates back to the Omaha-based Northern Natural Gas Company, an interstate pipeline company formed in 1932. In 1979, the Northern Natural Gas Company merged under their holding company InterNorth. Accordingly, InterNorth branched into a more diversified energy company working in natural gas marketing, production, and transmission alongside plastics innovation and other energy-related products. In 1985, during the reorganization of the merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, the company named itself “HNG/InterNorth Inc.” and built a large headquarter complex in Omaha, much of it being formed with pink granite (locally dubbed as the “Pink Palace”). Six months after the reorganization of the company, Samuel Segnar, the company’s first CEO, departed--paving way for Kenneth Lay (HNG’s former CEO) to replace Segnar. The next year, Lay received the post of chairman. Following Lay’s entrance into HNG/InterNorth Inc., chapter two began with a running start.

of drilling for natural gas. Again the process of waste disposal in fracking is also the cause of

The focus of the corporation soon changed direction once it was realized that investing in selling intangible assets on the market could provide easier and higher revenue returns. This type of trading on the open stock market, with little regulations is what allowed the infamous criminal acts to take place and led to one of the world’s worst bankruptcy cases in United States history. An investigation finally occurred when investors found suspicious stock prices increasing exponentially and a whistleblower raised concern that finally revealed the fraudulent operations of Enron’s top executives conspiring with multiple businesses.

Enron began by merger of two Houston pipeline companies in 1985, although as a new company Enron faced a lot of financial difficulties in the starting years, though the company was able to survive these financial problems (Enron Ethics, 2010). In 1988 the deregulation of the electrical power markets came into action and flipped the company from up to down, after deregulation company business updated from delivering energy to becoming an energy broker and soon after this Enron once a company struggling

Enron began as a pipeline company in Houston in 1985. It profited by promising to deliver so many cubic feet to a particular utility or business on a particular day at a market price.

| * David should keep a straightforward and honest relationship with MAL. * David integrity will be compromised if these errors are discovered.

In a play entailing revenge, distress, and distrust Shakespeare brings to life the character Hamlet who is stuck in the middle of a corrupt situation. Broken by the recent death of his father and the quick remarriage of his mother Hamlet embarks on a journey of the mind. Hamlet puts forward the act of insanity to find the truth that lays behind his father's sudden death. Throughout this play Shakespeare presents Hamlet as a deranged man and leaves his sanity to be interpreted by the reader. Although the character of Hamlet sees his madness as nothing but an act and uses insanity as a means to discover truth, eventually he loses control of this game he has created and becomes insane.

Ethics in the business world can often times become a second priority behind the gaining of profits and success as a company. This is the controversial issue that led to the Enron scandal and ultimately the fall of this company. Enron Corporation was an energy company, and in the peaks of their success, they were the top supplier of natural gas and electricity throughout America. Enron Corporation came about from a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. Houston Natural Gas was a gas providing company formed in Houston during the 1920’s. InterNorth was a company formed in Nebraska during the 1930’s and owned one of America’s largest pipeline networks. In 1985, Sam Segnar, the CEO of InterNorth bought out Houston Natural Gas for $2.4 billion. A year later in 1986, Segnar retired and was replaced by Kenneth Lay, who renamed the company and created Enron. Enron was the owner of the second largest pipeline in America that measured over 36,000 miles. The company was also the creator of the “Gas Bank”, which was a new way to trade and market natural gas and served as an intermediary between buyers and sellers. As the company continued to develop, it became more of a trader rather than a producer of gas. This trading extended into coal, steel, water and many other areas. One of Enron’s largest successes was their creation of a website called, “Enron Online” in 1999, which quickly became one of the top trading cites in the world. By the year 2000 Enron as a company was

The story of Enron begins in 1985, with the merger of two pipeline companies, orchestrated by a man named Kenneth L. Lay (1). In its 15 years of existence, Enron expanded its operations to provide products and services in the areas of electricity, natural gas as well as communications (9). Through its diversification, Enron would become known as a corporate America darling (9) and Fortune Magazine’s most innovative company for 5 years in a row (10). They reported extraordinary profits in a short amount of time. For example, in 1998 Enron shares were valued at a little over $20, while in mid-2000, those same shares were valued at just over $90 (10), the all-time high during the company’s existence (9).

Enron lead the American energy, commodities, Enron Services was based in Houston, TX. During the turn of the 21st century Enron had an employee base of 20,000 people on payroll. Enron made profits by selling electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper. Enron’s revenues totaled over $101 billion in 2000. Due to Enron’s earning Fortune named Enron as the America Most Innovative Company. Enron was one of the biggest publicly traded companies and highly trusted by all investors. Enron earnings flourished during the start-up of the computer dotcom era in the 1990s. In November 1999, Enron build and launched EnronOnline site. This was the first ever web-based transaction system allowing buyers and sellers to buy, sell, and trade commodity products around the world. Enron peaked; $6 billion worth of commodities transacted through their EnronOnline website daily. EnronOnline allowed for Enron stocks to transact with participants in world energy markets. On their financial books Enron looked as they were doing extremely well and many investors sought out to buy Enron’s stocks. Enron net worth was about $70 billion, their shares traded for about $90 dollars each. Enron was known on Wall Street as a blue chip stock and was considered to be very stable and trustworthy. Enron was named the fifth largest company by Fortune 500. Enron lead the market in energy production, distribution, and trading.