CEO signoff

[mattjclark]

I did hear something last night that the FBI is doing here in the Bay Area, that seems to have some promise.

The FBI has set up a whistle blowers hotline where you can turn in the corrupt management that employees you. Supposedly, the FBI has received at least 5 very credible leads that may lead to indictment

Thoughts?

 

[Madison]

Originally posted by mattjclark

The FBI has set up a whistle blowers hotline where you can turn in the corrupt management that employees you.

Thoughts?

Only that management is going to be EXTRA careful in the selection for the next round of layoffs...

 

[William]

Originally posted by mattjclark

Admittedly, I don't fully know all the details.
So tell me why is this a good idea?

It all starts with investor confidence. We all know how important consumer confidence is the the economy, right? Well, same idea here.

I think if you read some articles you'll get a much better objective view.

 

[mattjclark]

Originally posted by William


It all starts with investor confidence. We all know how important consumer confidence is the the economy, right? Well, same idea here.

I think if you read some articles you'll get a much better objective view.

Yes, we know that; however, my point was that this act will install some fake investor confidence (because it does nothing to stop the practice of accounting fraud), that when it is discovered to be fake, will make things even worse (i.e. make investors loose confidence in the markets and the government).

I think you need to talk to some people in the accounting profession that really know what's going on, and not listen to a bunch of political analysts and media commentators that are clueless about the realities of the economy.

 

[crackedback]

You can discuss this 'til you're "blue in the face" regarding the absolute uselessness of this CEO sign-off exercise.

People still don't understand what an audit is, how it's conducted and that it doesn't GUARANTEE ABSOLUTE ACCURACY of ANY NUMBER in the financials. As you know the ONLY hard number in the financials is cash, after that it's a free-for-all. If you have a smart, aggressive CFO or controller, they can bury items all over the balance sheet where an audit will never find them. Particularly if they know the level of materiality applied to the process.

I remember one of my first days as an auditor at a Big 6 at the time. One of the clients controllers told me that it was my job to find things and his job to hide them. One day I would be on the other side of the desk and my role would be reversed. That was almost 15 years ago. And this stuff just started .... WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

This has been going on for a long time and people think WCOM was original in boosting reserves to "cookie jar" credits or capitalizing current period expenses.

This whole exercise is like putting a band-aid on a compound fracture!!!!

Later,

Cracked