More Than 7% of U.S. Public Companies Fail Financial Certification

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

------- Original message -------
From: Robert Raisch  <raisch () raischfinancial com>
Sent: 18/4/'05,  12:17

Dave,

According to research we recently conducted with Compliance Week - 
www.complianceweek.com, more than 7% of public companies in the Russell 
3000 have failed to be certified under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley 
Act of  2002 since February.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) was enacted in the wake of such spectacular 
financial failures like Enron and Worldcom, to give investors timely 
information regarding anything which might adversely affect their 
investment.  Section 404 requires public companies to have their 
auditors certify that the company's internal controls over financial 
reporting meet minimum requirements established by the Securities & 
Exchange Commission and general accounting standards and practices.  
Such controls can be as simple as requiring any corporate check to be 
signed by two authorized employees or as complicated as minutely 
tracking all income and expenditures throughout the organization.

Of the twenty-seven companies in "Computer Hardware & Software" 
reporting in the first quarter of 2005, four failed SOX 404 compliance.

Each Tuesday, we publish an up-to-the-minute analysis of SOX 404 
compliance in the
    Compliance Week / Raisch Financial Internal Controls Report Scorecard
Full details can be found at http://www.complianceweek.com

IPer's wishing to view the report can drop me a line at 
raisch () raischfinancial com and I'd be happy to forward them a copy of 
the most recent report.

See also:

New York Times: "Here it Comes: The Sarbanes-Oxley Backlash"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/17/business/yourmoney/17sox.html

Reuters: "Lifting the Lid: Audit Failures Hit Some More Than Others"
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=8134684&section=news

Business Week: "Sarbanes-Oxley Is Not Bad"
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_17/b3930023_mz001.htm

/rr
Robert Raisch, ceo
Raisch Financial
www.raischfinancial.com

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