The opportunity now exists to have wider choice among qualified audit firms.
JULY MARKS THE completion of my 34th and last year as a partner at Grant Thornton, and the end of my 40 years in the public accounting profession. It also marks the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Much has taken place during my four decades in the profession, but the five years since the enactment of SOX have been the most dramatic. The accounting scandals and audit failures that rocked the capital markets and brought on the demise of Arthur Andersen in 2002 undermined confidence in financial reporting and seriously damaged the capital markets. It would be hard to overstate their impact.
Empowerment Redux
Perhaps the most significant change to emerge from the SOX legislation has been the vigorous empowerment of audit committees to fulfill their responsibilities. There is now more recognition of the special covenant among all stakeholders— audit committees, auditors, and investors. That covenant is fundamental to ensuring the underlying integrity of financial reporting and the capital markets, as well as to investor confidence.
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