Reflection2 Reflection Sabanes Oxley Act and the CLERP 9 These regulations were brought into place so that shareholders, the public and employees could be protected from accounting errors as well as fraudulent practises in the financial sector. This is a federal law in the United States (Sarbanes, 2002)that creates financial and auditing regulations for various public companies. In doing so, financial reporting in public companies could be improved hence bringing up confidence amongst investors especially when corporate crime was on the increase. In addition, some provisions of the Act extend their cover to not-for- profit organisation, private companies and all enterprises, (Baker, 2018). In case of noncompliance, SOX has its own set of penalties. On the other hand, CLERP 9 aims at promoting better disclosure and promoting full participation of shareholders in their companies Main issues The main issues that were raised by CLERP 9 included the need to have corporate disclosure as well as improving the reporting framework of finances that companies face. SOX had similar issues where financial reports were deemed to be reported in an unfair way hence creating panic situations amongst shareholders and investors. Most importantly, financial reporting as well as audits had to be considered in the Act. This extended to CFO/CEO sing off, Analysis and Management discussions. Conflict of interests were also raised especially during licensing. There was need to create independence amongst analysts.
Reflection3 How the issues developed The issues raised above developed after concerns were raised by shareholders and investors when they were faced by corporate scandals, (Chintrakarn et al., 2017). It is my opinion that these regulations were put in place because of high cases in the falsification of financial reports so that it was easy for CFOs and CEOs to steal money and reflect a failing company or investment. A good example are companies such as Enron Corp, World Com and Tyco International where millions of dollars were stolen by top managers.
Reflection4 References Chintrakarn, P., Treepongkaruna, S., Jiraporn, P., & Tong, S. (2017). Does board independence substitute for external audit quality? Evidence from an exogenous regulatory shock. Baker, C. R. (2018). The lack of impact of fair value accounting: a commentary on ‘“fair value” accounting as the normative Fisherian phase of accounting’.Accounting History Review,28(3), 191-198. Sarbanes, P. (2002, July). Sarbanes-oxley act of 2002. InThe Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act. Washington DC: US Congress.