Week 4 Discussion AA

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002:

As a direct result of the corporate accounting scandals exposed in 2001 and 2002, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This legislation has had a wide-ranging impact on corporate financial reporting and the accounting profession as a whole.

One of the most important results of this act is the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board:

• This five-member board is appointed by the SEC and funded by fees assessed against publicly traded companies
• The board has been given the authority to enforce auditing, quality control, and independence standards. Such power reduces the accounting profession’s ability to regulate itself as it has done in the past seven decades

Discuss how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 works, other than the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and also briefly discuss the corporate accounting scandals that encouraged the creation of this act. Cite your courses.