Reply #34: GAO to SEC: Improve Your Controls

[54anickel]

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/4241158/c_4241354?f=home...

The General Accountability Office has issued a follow-up report to the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing 18 suggestions the GAO believes would repair "material" weaknesses in the SEC's financial internal controls.

On Wednesday the GAO made recommendations covering the commission's internal controls over disgorgements and penalties for those who violate securities laws. It also proposed improvements in the SEC's controls over financial-statement preparation and reporting.

The GAO report asserts the SEC didn't perform procedures to reasonably assure the completeness and reliability of financial information about disgorgements and penalties in its case-tracking system. Further, there's an amplified risk of incomplete or inaccurate data because of inefficient communication among various SEC divisions and offices.

During their review, the GAO officials witnessed a case in which the SEC's enforcement division entered disgorgements into the system, but the finance staff responsible for the accounting entries didn't have the documentation needed to make the entries into the general ledger.

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Doesn't matter we have Fox, errr I mean Cox heading up the SEC now. He'll keep good track of the "gorging".