The Sarbanes-Oxley Act Case Study

Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 to restore investor confidence by requiring public companies to strengthen corporate governance through several mechanisms, including enhanced disclosure on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting (ICFR). As claimed by regulators, the disclosures on the effectiveness of ICFR are aimed at improving the quality of financial reporting, which would, in turn, reduce the information asymmetry for investors in U.S. capital markets” (Donaldson). Sarbanes- Oxley named after its creators, Senator Paul Sarbanes, D-Md and Congressman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio. Enacted in 2002 with the purpose to crack down on corporate fraud. The implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley led to the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to oversee the accounting industry. It was created to eliminate corporate fraud, and it put in place a ban on company loans to executives while also giving job protection to whistleblowers. Before SOX was put into place the accounts were a self-regulated profession, such as medical professionals and lawyers. This is what led to the fraudulent actions of major institutions, people can be greedy, and they need checks and balances to ensure the fidelity of the firm. There are criminal enhanced penalties for corporate fraud and related misdeeds, this brings justice to the sector as well as working as a deterrent for additional immoral

In general, the main criticisms of the PCAOB are that it has not made sufficient it’s regulatory power, it is slow to act in its investigations of enforcement cases, and that it targets enforcement on smaller firms in order to protect the Big 4 firms, which are regarded as “too big to fail.” While I do not disagree with the fact that the PCAOB is slow and has not produced a significant amount of regulation, I do disagree with the criticism of the PCAOB as a regulatory body in general. I feel that certain members of the public desire absolute transparency in financial reporting, but do not understand the economy required to so. It is nearly impossible, not to mention impractical, to breakdown every aspect of a multi-billion dollar corporation to ensure that every transaction is accounted for

The PCAOB is responsible for providing independent oversight for public accounting firms. Auditors independence job is to limit conflict of interest and monitor the requirements of new auditor approvals. Corporate responsibility require that senior executives take sole responsibility for completeness and accuracy of all corporate financial reports. Last but not least, enhance financial disclosures assures the accuracy of financial reports and

The act is also referred to as Sarbox or SOX. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is responsible for enforcement of the law. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) was created as a new auditor through SOX. Standards were stipulated for audit reports.

Title I of the SOX comprises the creation of the Public Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) (Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 2002). The PCAOB is a private-sector, nonprofit corporation which oversees the auditors of public companies. It is to protect the interests of the investors and to further the public interest when preparing informative, fair, and independent audit reports. The title consists of 9 subsections. Section 101 describes the establishment of PCAOB, which consists of 5 full time members, 2 of which are CPAs, all selected by the SEC (Philipp, CPA, & CGMA, 2014). Section 102 states that public accounting firms are required to register with the PCAOB in order to issue or prepare in the issuance of an audit report to an issuer (Philipp, CPA,

The PCAOB is the public accounting oversight board created by the Congress via the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It appears the PCAOB has laid the groundwork to effectively monitor and review the public accounting

The act also created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board which is a nonprofit that was established by Congress. This board’s mission is to ensure accurate as well as independent audit

The PCAOB is a nonprofit corporation created by congress. It was established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and was a response to the accounting scandals in the early 2000s. The SEC is authorized by congress to oversee the PCAOB’s operation. Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission appoints and removes members, approves the PCAOB 's budget and rules, and entertains appeals of PCAOB inspection reports and disciplinary actions.

In addition, the PCAOB was given broad responsibilities, including enforcing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the SEC’s rules, the professional accounting standards, the securities laws, and its own rules. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, among other things, created the PCAOB. Furthermore, to reaffirm the public's confidence in the nation's financial markets and to establish a more uniform system of corporate accountability and disclosure, the Sarbanes-Oxley's goals was to implement a series of controls and safeguards on public companies. Moreover, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act selected the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the PCAOB. Further, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act states that the PCAOB’s budget and accounting support fee be subject to approval by the SEC being that they are the ones who fund the operations of

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002, aims to combat fraud, improve the reliability of financial reporting and restores investor confidence. Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley emphasize the management’s responsibility in maintaining a sound internal-control structure of financial reporting and assessing its own effectiveness. While the auditors’ responsibility is to attest to the soundness of management’s assessment and to report on the state of the overall financial control system. Although it has been a question by most executives, however, some approached the new law with gratitude. As SOX went into effect, more executives had realized the need for internal reforms; they were startled by the weaknesses and gaps of their internal control that compliance reviews and assessments had exposed.

Section 101 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act establishes the Public Company Accounting Oversights Board (PCAOB). The Board consists of five financially-literate members that are appointed for five-year terms. Three of these members must not be a CPA currently nor have been one in the past. The other two members must be, previously or currently, a certified public accountant. The main focus of this Board is (1) to register along with discipline accounting firms that prepare audit reports on companies that are public; (2) conduct inspections and/or investigations of registered accounting firms that audit public companies; and (3) establish audit and accounting standards.

     The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) was created by Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This board was created to oversee the audit of public companies, subject to the securities laws, in order to protect the interests of investors (15 USC 7201, 2002). It was created in wake of the recent financial scandals of Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing to name a few. This “Act” established by Congress is to create an oversight board, so that such scandals will never occur again. Will this oversight board work and will its work restore public confidence and encourage individuals to invest in the stock market again?

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has implemented new rules to its auditing standards which will provide financial statement users with information about engagement partners and accounting firm that participate in the audit of issuers. After the final decision, all public accounting firm will be required to apply the new rule for each issuer audit. According to the PCAOB Release No. 2015-008, the three disclosing issues include:

Financial reports in the US must be completed according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as determined by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). In addition, the US Government passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and established the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in the aftermath of unethical accounting practices at large corporations, such as Enron and WorldCom. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act created additional accounting regulations for large companies and the PCAOB overseas the American Institute of Certified

Auditing standards are published by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). As such, the PCAOB published Auditing Standard Number 5 (AS 5), which recommends integrating an audit of intern controls with the audit of a firm’s financial statements (PCAOBUS, 2007). An auditor’s objectives of the internal controls audit and that of the financial statements are not identical, and the auditor must perform the audits to achieve both objectives.