Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Corporate
Governance
❑ Understanding
❑ Laws and Regulations
❑ The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
❑ Boards of directors
❑ Audit Committees
❑ Compensations Committees
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Changes in corporate governance mechanisms and practices will usually
have direct and immediate effects on MCS practices and their
effectiveness.
◼ Primarily because of the major business scandals that were uncovered
in the early 2000s – including Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Parmalat, and
Royal Ahold,
◼ the mismanagement, misreporting, and fraud that contributed
significantly to the 2008 financial crisis
◼ interest in corporate governance has skyrocketed
❑Corporations are legal entities. They are subject to the laws and regulations
of the government jurisdictions in which they operate and those of the stock
markets on which their shares are traded.
➢ The directors, the elected representatives of the shareholders, are charged with
overseeing the actions of management.
➢ The primary goal of the owner is to maximize the value of the corporation.
➢ Value creation is a long-run, future-oriented concept.
❑The US federal government began regulating financial markets and their participants (e.g.
corporations, securities exchanges, brokers, dealers, and advisors) after the stock market
crash of 1929.
❑The US Congress passed the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934 that, among other things,
created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency primarily responsible
for enforcement of US federal securities laws.
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❑ The Continental European/Japanese system of governance is aimed at ensuring that the
corporation is managed for the good of the enterprise, its multiple stakeholders, and
society at large.
❑ One important effect of this legal difference is in the composition of the boards of
directors.
Large German corporations, for example, are required to have a two-tier board
structure, one that provides strategic oversight and another that provides operational
management oversight
❑ All corporations are bound also by the rules and regulations of the stock exchange on
which their shares are traded: the New Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ in the
United States, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in the United Kingdom, or Deutsche
Börse in Germany, maintain extensive sets of rules to regulate their listed companies, to
prevent manipulative practices, and to promote fair principles of trade
◼ The explicit goal of SOX was to improve the transparency, timeliness, and quality of
financial reporting
◼ SOX has had effects beyond US borders. All companies registered with the SEC must
comply with SOX whether their headquarters are based in the United States or abroad
• The external auditing industry, became highly regulated by the federal government. SOX
created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and gave it the
authority, with oversight from the SEC, to set auditing standards and to monitor
auditors’ actions
• The members of audit committees of companies’ boards of directors are required to be
independent and financially literate.
9 Creating the great business leaders
Fakultas Ekonomi dan Bisnis
School of Economic and Business
Telkom University
• Senior company managers, usually the CEO and CFO, are required to certify that
they had reviewed their company’s quarterly and annual financial statements;
Internal Control :
✓ One of the most significant provisions
✓ Legal requirement (Sarbanes-Oxley) : “Good internal controls”
✓ Formal evaluation (Section 404 mandated) : The effectiveness of a company’s
internal controls by both management and the company’s external auditor and
formal written opinions
Some basic principles how to structure their activities and how to act :
1. must comply with the relevant laws and regulations.
2. should try to follow what they believe to be best practice.
To carry out their responsibilities effectively, some issues are delegated to board
committees (depend on the needs of the company’s industry), such as :
◼ audit committee,
◼ compensation committee, and
◼ nominating and governance committee.
13 Creating the great business leaders
Fakultas Ekonomi dan Bisnis
School of Economic and Business Audit Committees
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◼ Audit committees provide independent oversight over companies’ financial
reporting processes, internal controls, and independent auditors
◼ Audit committees :
➢ establish procedures for handling complaints regarding accounting, auditing,
and internal control matters
➢ establish procedures for the confidential, anonymous submission by employees
of concerns regarding questionable accounting practices.
➢ responsible for the appointment, compensation, retention, and oversight of the
work of the external auditor
➢ Partner of the external auditors to discuss and address the quality of the
company’s accounting principles
◼ Discuss with the independent auditor their qualitative judgments about the
appropriateness of the organization’s accounting principles and financial
disclosure practices.
◼ Go beyond a “check-the-box” orientation to compliance with legal
requirements.
◼ Be proactive
◼ Secure access to resources as needed
Thank You