The root causes of the breakdown in corporate accounting practices that have been widely disclosed in the past few months are ineffective corporate governance, financial reporting, and risk-management practices. The lessons from recent events are not new.
Rather, recent events should serve as a wake-up call to corporate boards, management, corporate accountants, and auditors to follow through on their fundamental and traditional professional and ethical standards of conduct and control processes. Although the issues are not new, the scope and frequency of breakdowns are of concern.