Details of the Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002

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An auditor’s role in an audit is very important. An auditor must be able to collect enough evidence to supports their finding, and also be on the lookout for fraud. Company’s may or may not know the law, but it is the job to know the law, and be able to educate and report findings properly. Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, there have been provisions that have directly affected auditors. This paper will include the details of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, how ethics and independence have affected auditors, as well implementation of new standards based on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, provided changes in the regulations of the issuers in the public structures in the United States, as well as non-United States issuers. The Act applies to all issuers including forging private issuers that have registered securities under the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are required to file reports under section 15(d), or have filed a registration statement under the United States Securities Act of 1933. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act prohibits the listing of any security in the United States of America of an issue that is not in compliance with certain standards for audit committees. The SEC has issues rules requiring a foreign private issuer to disclose their annual report on Form 20-F, ad that the issuer’s board of directors has determined if they have an audit committee financial expert on their auditing committee. They also must disclose the financial expert, and the expert must meet all the attributes. The Act also has requirements that relates directly to auditor independence which will be discussed later. It also states that the auditor cannot be improperly influenced by any officer or director of a company....

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...and Influence in Codes of Ethics: A Centering Resonance Analysis Comparing Pre and Post Sarbanes-Oxley Codes of Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 80:263-278.

Cohen, A., Boradsky, D. (2004) Palgrave Macmillan. The US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: What audit committees of non-US issuers need to know. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance 1.4 313-323.

Jones III, A., Norman, C. (2006) Decision Making in a Public Accounting Firm: An Instructional Case in Risk Evaluation, Client Continuance, and Auditor Independence within the Context of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Linsley, Colin (2003) Auditing, risk management and a post Sarbanes-Oxley world. Review of Business 24.3 21-25

Sullivan, Daniel (2010) The Impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on the Teaching of Ethics in Core MBA Curriculums in Ohio. American Journal of Business Education 3.2 61-69.

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