In a survey of chief financial officers and senior comptrollers across USA, conducted by Grant Thornton LLP, found less support for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s newly issued guidance (AS 5) on internal controls and the new audit standard for auditing internal controls as 47.96% did not find it to be a significant improvement over previous rules, compared with 43.89 % who did.
More than three-quarters or 79% of the CFOs believed the roles of chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman should be held by different people.
In addition, three-quarters of the respondents thought the SEC should revise the 8-K rules to require reasons for all company dismissals to auditors, for all auditor resignations and for all instances in which the auditor chooses not to stand for reappointment.
To the question ‘do you believe shareholders in public companies should have greater access to the proxy?’ 66.06 % answered ‘yes’ and 29.86 %, ‘no’. To ‘do you believe that small cap companies who test internal controls, according to Sarbanes-Oxley, will be looked upon more favourably by investors than those who do not test internal controls?’ 68.78% answered ‘yes’ and ‘29.41 %, ‘no’.
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