Audit fees fell in the second year of implementation of post-Enron financial control reforms for nearly half the large US corporations studied in a analysis released on Tuesday.
The Sarbanes-Oxley law requires companies to explain their internal controls publicly each year and for their outside auditors to attest to the controls’ effectiveness.
The Section 404 requirement and associated increase in audit fees have become a lightning rod for critics of the costs of implementing Sarbanes-Oxley.
But the top four accounting firms forecast in December that the cost of complying with Section 404 would drop sharply for large companies in ’05 and the Compliance Week newsletter study suggests that is beginning to happen. Of 47 large companies, 23 saw outright declines in audit costs and audit-related fees.
See full Article.
Posts
