Archive for July, 2009

Compensation Committees To Be More Like Audit Committees: Okie-Dokie

By Francine • Jul 31st, 2009

As much as I wholeheartedly agree with Compensation Committee independence reforms in principle, I am skeptical about how well they will be implemented and enforced. Let’s look at how well the independence provisions that were implemented for Audit Committees in 2003 worked out. What did lawmakers hope to accomplish when the audit committee independence provisions were included in the Sarbanes Oxley Act?

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Reading List For Leadership Skills

By Francine • Jul 28th, 2009

A guest post from Karen Chodzicki

Recently, a friend of this blog was promoted to a supervisory position and asked us for recommendations for books to read to guide in these new responsibilities. There are many books out there that focus on developing leadership skills.

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McKenna Quoted In The Guardian

By Francine • Jul 25th, 2009

Francine McKenna, an ex-PWC director and a fierce critic of the “big four” accounting firms (PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young), believes the Satyam issue raises fundamental questions of oversight. She says: “It’s hard to know the extent to which there was complicity between the auditors and senior management or whether it was plain [...]

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PwC And Satyam: It’s Bigger Than A Blown Audit

By Francine • Jul 24th, 2009

US and Indian regulators and investigators are focusing on the wrong thing when investigating the Satyam scandal. It’s not the audit failure that’s most important.

Follow the money.

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McKenna Featured In “Going Concern” Blog

By Francine • Jul 22nd, 2009

I’ll be writing a weekly column for the new blog, Going Concern, a part of the Breaking Media empire..

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Dreaming Of India: PwC and Satyam

By Francine • Jul 17th, 2009

Sounds like, in addition to the recent comments reporting PwC reductions once the new fiscal year started, it’s now time for PwC partners to realize my half tongue-in-cheek prediction of partner layoffs and salary reductions.

In the meantime there have been several updates and new developments from India. The consensus of those “in the know” is:

“PwC messed up big time.”

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The “Last Out” May Come From Left Field…

By Francine • Jul 13th, 2009

It seems so much of the time I spend on the blog – reviewing material, discussing the firms with others, analyzing the strategic choices they’ve made – is spent on lawyers and litigation. Jim Peterson wrote a follow-up post yesterday with his thoughts on the Mid Year Review of Securities Litigation webcast and our phone conversation over the weekend.

We agreed, at least, on this: Failure of another big audit firm is the elephant in the room.

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Recommendations: Great Books To Read At Any Stage of Your Career

By Francine • Jul 12th, 2009

A reader asked for some recomendations for students and professionals at the beginning of their accounting /auditing career. These books are good at any point in your career.

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Top Twenty-Five Posts on re: The Auditors

By Francine • Jul 11th, 2009

Here’s the Top 25 posts on re: The Auditors as of July 11, 2009

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McKenna On Auditor Litigation: Securities Docket’s Mid-Year Update and Schein v. EY

By Francine • Jul 11th, 2009

Last Thursday I participated in the “2009 Mid-Year Review – Securities Litigation and Enforcement” sponsored by Securities Docket. The webcast is part of BrightTalk’s Securities Litigation Summit, and follows-up and provides an update to the popular “2008 Year in Review” we presented in January 2009.
I joined several of the leading bloggers in the securities litigation [...]

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