|  | | 2007 News and Press Releases | | |
HEADLINE NEWS:
Sarbox's Influence Seeps into Nonprofits, Tax-exempt organizations are slowly making changes to their governance policies, following demands by proponents of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's virtues.
Sarah Johnson
cfo.com. December 5, 2007
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EXCERPT: Five years after companies began complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, nonprofit organizations have gotten into the rhythm of improving their governance policies and internal-controls documentation. In a recent survey of nonprofit executives and board members, Grant Thornton found that 92 percent have implemented new accounting policies and procedures within the past few years, compared to only 59 percent who last year said they had new policies in place. In many ways the call for changes in financial-reporting procedures at not-for-profits organizations — which notoriously have a reputation for nontransparent financial information and lack of consistent, regulatory oversight — are tied to the corporate scandals earlier this decade and Sarbox. The governance mantras inherent in the 2002 law for publicly traded companies have been carried over to the nonprofit sector from the corporate suits who sit on the not-for-profit boards. "They are generally regarded as good practices," says Larry Ladd, the accounting firm's director of higher education practice. The organizations' audit committees are also taking their work more seriously than in the past, he adds. |
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