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Sarbanes-Oxley: After Ten Years Still Too Early to Pass Judgement?
To regulate, or not? July 30th marks the ten years anniversary of Sarbanes-Oxley. Given a ten year retrospective, one would think that there would be some sort of general agreement about whether the law has been successful or not. But that’s not the case. The debate over the costs and efficacy of Sarbanes-Oxley have persisted over the last ten years and continue today.
The arguments continue on both sides. It’s a balance between limiting fraud in companies versus the costs of implementing and maintaining compliance with the law. Some argue that the law makes it difficult for some companies to go public and ultimately limits the creation of jobs. But continuing scandals in the financial world cause some to argue that even tighter regulations are necessary.
Here are some comments heard in this debate:
Michael Gallagher, chairman of the Professional Practice Executive Committee of the Center for Audit Quality, said that “The benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley are substantial. And in my view, it serves capital markets and investors well… The benefit is to the cost of capital because of that assurance and that higher level of rigor from that internal control.”
Steve Sanghi, president and chief executive officer at Microchip Technology in Chandler, reported by AZCentral, said that “Our auditing costs have doubled, and our inside costs also have increased substantially. When you add it all up, our costs have at least doubled… Anytime there’s corporate malfeasance, as with Enron and others, Congress goes crazy and passes more laws that they think will address the next crisis, and they never do. There are and were plenty of laws on the books — they just need to enforce them.”
Ronald Butler, Arizona managing partner for Ernst & Young in Phoenix, said that “Companies get used to it. It becomes part of the fabric of the corporation… Good companies with great innovation and a need for capital will eventually find their way to the public markets, regardless of regulatory requirements.”
Scott Saks, a corporate partner at Paul Hastings in New York, said that “You can regulate as much as you want, but if someone wants to commit fraud, they’ll do it. If companies want to get around regulations, they’ll find a way.”
