Purpose Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)

Sarbanes –Oxley Act, enacted by the United States congress is aimed at protecting investors. The protection is provided by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures.

SOX enactment is an act that was formulated as a result of corporate scandals from Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and Tyco. However, Congress succumbed to pressure from the public for the government to take action about the unethical behavior of company executives of publicly –traded companies. Thus, the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) was to restore the integrity and public confidence in financial markets. During these scandals, there were flagrant disregard to Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP). For example, according to Washington Post (2005), WorldCom

Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law which was introduced in 2002. It is also known as the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act” and “and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act”. The main objective of the act is to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. New aspects are created by SOX act for corporate accountability as well as new penalties for wrong doings. It was basically introduced after major corporate and accounting scandals including the scandals of Enron, WorldCom etc so that the same kind of scandals do not repeat again.

Sarbanes Oxley Act known as the SOX Act offer guidelines companies and organizations should conduct their financial reporting. Not reporting balance sheets or financial statements the way SOX

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which is also known as the Public Company Accounting and Investor Protection Act or the Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act and then more commonly called Sarbanes-Oxley, or SOX, is a United States federal law that set new or enhanced standards for all of the United States public company boards, management and public accounting firms.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as SOX in short, is a U.S. Federal Law passed by President George Bush. The main reason behind passing of the law was that the government needed improved regulations mandating upper management to confirm the reliability and transparency of the financial statements. This bill came about because of the failure and malpractice by companies such as Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and Arthur Anderson. These companies caused a major scandal where investors lost billions of dollars resulting in the public losing confidence in the U.S. Securities Market. “The Act mandated a number of reforms to enhance corporate responsibility, enhance financial disclosures and combat corporate and accounting fraud, and created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, also known as the PCAOB.”[1] The act includes 11 sections that are enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires the financial reporting to be accurate within a business. This act does not currently affect the public health systems but the current system is beginning a flux towards applying this to non-profits. In an attempt to plan for the future it would be in the hospitals best interest to become SOX compliant. This will allow the hospital to be compliant when these changes finally do affect non-profit and public healthcare institutions. Sox is regulated and audited by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). This organization was created specifically for SOX compliance and currently has no other mission.

A vital part of business today is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It was created to protect the integrity of business and the interest of consumers and investors. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act enforces the monitoring of finance data and information technology as it relates to storage of information. It requires the audit of a company’s assets, accounting and finance. The act requires certifications by top company officials’ to guarantee that data submitted is true and accurate. Monitoring to ensure compliance is performed by audits. Falsification of data or non-compliance to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act can results to in penalties of fines and/or imprisonment.

The Sarbanes Oxley Act allowed the federal government to have durable guidelines of corporate governance along with inspecting the ethics for public companies. SOX creates the boundaries in regards to accounting companies and what they can offer These are services like: consulting, allowing corporate auditing organizations more responsibilities and accountabilities, enforcing public companies to make improved public releases - such as core financial controls assessment and permitting improved criminal and civil sanctions (Kessel, 2011). Moreover, SOX created the Public Company

The Sarbanes Oxley Act was approved and activated in 2002 to protect investors and to renew confidence in American companies from what happened with the fall of companies like Enron, HealthSouth, and WorldCom. This act was trusted to fix or find corruption in the companies and make them liable for their unethical activities. Although this act has proven to have many benefits, the cost of complying with the act for some companies has been much greater than expected. There are also negative effects of the Sarbanes Oxley Act that have been felt by not only companies, but investors in stock and consumers. With all this being said it lead to many asking the best question of all which was, Do the costs outweigh the benefits? The SOX Act was passed to improve the accountability of managers to shareholders however companies are finding the compliance costly, and are starting to question the true balance of the cost verses the benefits.

After the accounting scandals that took place in 2001 and 2002, Congress passed the SOX which requires companies to be held more accountable for financial statement reporting. SOX was established as a corporate responsibility law, which applies to all companies who are registered with the SEC (Mundy & Owen, 2013, p. 183). Mundy and Owen explains that SOX’s intention is to enhance the quality of financial statement reporting among all companies, to help investors feel confident with their investments (p. 183). Additionally, Mundy and Owen note that SOX looks to increase the reliability and accuracy of financial statements by implementing regulations and requirements on internal controls over financial reporting (p.183).

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted in July 30, 2002, by Congress to protect shareholders and the general public from fraudulent corporate practices and accounting errors and to maintain auditor independence.   In protecting the shareholders and the general public the SOX Act is intended to improve the transparency of the financial reporting.   Financial reports are to be certified by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) creating increased responsibility and independence with auditing by independent audit firms. In discussing the SOX Act, we will focus on how this act affects the CEOs; CFOs; outside independent audit firms; the advantages and a

These changes were outlined in the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). SOX completely revolutionized financial reporting, requiring senior management of firms to sign off on each financial statement that the company issues. It also stipulated that wrongful doing can result in not only termination but also imprisonment. SOX amplified the requirement for companies, requiring firms to maintain proper levels of internal controls when it comes to operating activities. SOX also established the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) which implemented stricter auditing standards for public accounting firms. Not only were accounting firms required to consider internal controls, but they were also required report any significant deficiency directly to the board of directors. SOX stressed the importance of internal controls, and within internal controls it established the need for segregation of duties. Since this time, there have been many additions to accounting policies regards segregations of duties, and many functions of the business process dedicated to it.

Sarbanes Oxley (also known as SOX) is legislation passed by the United States Congress in 2002, in the wake of a number of major corporate accounting scandals. Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and others cost investors billions when their stock prices collapsed. As a result of SOX, top management must separately certify the accuracy of financial Furthermore, consequences for fraudulent financial activity are much more severe. Also, SOX intensified the management role of boards of directors and the independence of the external auditors who review the accuracy of corporate financial statements. The primary changes caused the formation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the assessment of personal liability to auditors, executives and board members and creation of the Section 404, which recognized internal control events that had not existed before the legislation.

4). Section 401 of SOX requires corporations to issue financial statements that are complete and accurate and include all material off-balance sheet obligations or liabilities (A Guide to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 2006). This regulation was instituted to prevent public corporations from hiding liabilities from investors, and thus artificially inflating stock prices.