Re: We hit half-million: The Cidr Report

[Alain Hebert <ahebert () pubnix net>]

    Well,

    I was just a suit drone into one of their 100 little IT firm around
the world.

    The nearest I got to an actual AA associate was during a 1 month
project in Chicago (:

    Wasted my time really... They billed 3 months to their clients, for
a project that took 1 month, and I was asked to fill the cubicle for 2
month doing nothing.

-----
Alain Hebert                                ahebert () pubnix net   
PubNIX Inc.        
50 boul. St-Charles
P.O. Box 26770     Beaconsfield, Quebec     H9W 6G7
Tel: 514-990-5911  http://www.pubnix.net    Fax: 514-990-9443

On 05/01/14 18:43, Owen DeLong wrote:
> Care to comment on how you feel about the COI that developed between AA Consulting business at Enron and AA auditing 
> Enron?
>
> Not asking you to disclose anything confidential, but if you have wisdom to impart about any sort of generic lessons 
> learned, etc. that might be relevant to this discussion, I think that could be useful.
>
> Owen
>
> On May 1, 2014, at 12:56 PM, Alain Hebert <ahebert () pubnix net> wrote:
>
> >    Hey,
> >
> >    I worked for them (AA) in the early 90's =D
> >
> > -----
> > Alain Hebert                                ahebert () pubnix net   
> > PubNIX Inc.        
> > 50 boul. St-Charles
> > P.O. Box 26770     Beaconsfield, Quebec     H9W 6G7
> > Tel: 514-990-5911  http://www.pubnix.net    Fax: 514-990-9443
> >
> > On 05/01/14 14:07, John Souter wrote:
> > > On 01/05/14 17:41, Owen DeLong wrote:
> > > > The problem with this theory is that if auditors can be so easily put to the
> > > > street, you run into the risk of auditors altering behavior to increase customer
> > > > satisfaction in ways that prevent them from providing the controls that are the
> > > > reason auditors exist in the first place.
> > > I disagree.  And the power balance is generally tilted way in favour of
> > > the auditors, as many people on this thread have already commented.  In
> > > my experience, most companies are afraid/inhibited to raise issues or
> > > challenge their auditors in any way.  Nobody is asking auditors to roll
> > > over, but if their behaviour is unprofessional/illogical, then a short
> > > sharp shock should do the trick.
> > >
> > > > If you don’t believe me, examine the history of Arthur Anderson and their
> > > > relationship with a certain Houston-based company which failed spectacularly.
> > > Can't really comment, but it was financial auditing, and ISTR that many
> > > things failed in that situation - not just financial auditing.
> > >
> > > John