关于打击财务报告舞弊的研究【外文翻译】.doc

1、关于打击财务报告舞弊的研究【外文翻译】 本科毕业论文（设计） 外 文 翻 译 外文题目 Fighting Financial Reporting Fraud 外文出处 Internal Auditor 外文作者 Green, Scott 原文： Fighting Financial Reporting Fraud CONGRES PASSED THE U.S. SARBANES-OXLEY ACT of 2002 with the goal of rebuilding investor confidence and protecting capital markets. It recogniz

2、ed that strong internal controls were an important component of confidence building. Section 404 of the act addresses this component by mandating an annual evaluation of internal controls and procedures for financial reporting and requiring management to assess and certify the effectiveness of these

3、 controls. In addition Sarbanes-Oxley requires a companys external auditor to complete a separate report that attests to managements assessment of the effectiveness of internal controls and procedures for financial reporting. In short, the external auditor must perform testing to validate management

4、s assessment of the internal control structure. A strong internal audit function can provide both management and the public accountants with comfort that the control structure is being evaluated regularly and that deficiencies are remedied. Documenting and evaluating a companys processes and related

5、 control structure are traditional internal audit tasks that protect the enterprise. However, the degree to which internal auditors focus on the accuracy of their organizations financial reporting presentation and disclosure, in addition to operational audits, is a matter of judgment. Critical facto

6、rs that will determine the scope of internal auditing involvement in the financial reporting process include the strength and experience of the external auditors as well as the extent of their reliance on the internal control function the transparency and culture of the enterprise and audit prioriti

7、es based on solid risk analysis. There are three steps every auditor should take-regardless of their level of involvement-to help protect the organization from fraudulent financial reporting: * Listen to rogues and whistleblowers. * Ask focused questions that may lead to red flags of financial repor

8、ting trouble. * Watch for financial oddities by benchmarking performance. Investors depend on interim financial reports and need to believe these reports are fair and accurate. Internal auditing can provide valuable oversight to organizations by helping to ensure that communications arc free from in

9、appropriate financial engineering. THE ART OF LISTENING One of the problems with financial reporting scandals is that an unscrupulous chief financial officer (CFO) and members of his or her team are unlikely to announce their intentions. In fact, a common thread running through World Com, Enron, and

10、 other high-profile financial sandals is that each company had a strong, respected CFO who kept the number of people involved in the scandal to a minimum, exerted incredible control over the working group and commanded the groups loyalty above all other ethical considerations. These CFOs reportedly

11、rewarded those who supported them and intimidated, excluded, and punished those who did not. No auditor can reasonably expect such II tightly knit group to volunteer that their boss is playing with the numbers. The CFOs sycophants will court his or her approval at the expense of all else even the to

12、tal destruction of the enterprise. The good news is that, in recent cases, there were outsiders who were willing to step forward. At Enron, for example, Sherron Watkins, a corporate vice president, specifically told both Andersen and senior executives of her concerns regarding the conflict of intere

13、st between Enron and the special purpose entities (SPEs) the CFO administered as well as the perception of improper accounting at many of the SPEs he created. She also raised the possibility of the complete financial collapse of the company. Had they listened to Watkins, the fraud might have been identified earlier, thereby limiting the damage to the company and its empl