|  | | 2004 News and Press Releases | | |
HEADLINE NEWS:
Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Designed To Stop Accounting Scandals, Proves A Windfall For Auditors, Consultants
Mark Davis
Kansas City Star. December 14, 2004
_________________________________________________________________________
EXCERPT: "There is a great need for accountants, and we do need to rebuild the industry image." Brianna Kelly, KU accounting student. The echo from America's accounting scandals turns out to be an accounting boom. From the Big 4 auditing giants to college students with signing bonuses, everyone with a green eyeshade is cashing in. They owe it all to the infamous collapse of Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc., Arthur Andersen and others. Those dishonorable demises led Congress to adopt the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the anti-accounting-scandal law. Sarbanes-Oxley, often shortened to SOX in the business world, first required corporate leaders to personally vouch for the accuracy of their companies' financial statements. Now, Sarbanes' phase two has corporate managements developing, documenting, testing and improving their companies' internal controls over financial reporting and disclosures. Independent auditors are sweeping in behind them to retest and opine about the adequacy of the controls. It has become an all-encompassing endeavor that will reach into virtually every corner of every publicly owned company, most of them by the end of December. To cope with the crushing load of SOX work and rapidly closing deadlines, many public companies have hired extra outside accounting and consulting help. "That's where we're making a living right now," said Dennis Keglovits in the Kansas City offices of RSM McGladrey Inc. |
|
|
