Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to obtain a better understanding the
ID: 417826 • Letter: P
Question
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to obtain a better understanding the five components of internal control described by the COSO report, Internal Control: Integrated Framework. You will be selecting an Enforcement Release from the Enforcement Section of the SEC with internal control deficiencies and analyzing it.
Finding an Enforcement Release with Internal Control Deficiencies:
To obtain an SEC enforcement release to be used as a basis for this case, go to the SEC Enforcement Release website at www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/friactions.shtml. Once you are on the Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases website, in the text box enter “Internal Control Weaknesses” as the search term and click on “search.” Your search will return over 1500 results classified as “litigation” (see Results by Section at the top of the results page). You may select any of these cases as the basis for your case analysis, but not all of the enforcement releases are of the same quality. You should preview your release to ensure that it contains internal control issues that you can relate to the five COSO components.
Requirements:
In your 2-5 page (double spaced) write up, please do the following:
Provide a discussion of the fraud or errors that lead to the enforcement action
State the specific control components within COSO that are issues or have weaknesses as well as the risks, errors, fraud, etc., caused by the weaknesses, e.g., poor information and communication caused GM’s management to remain unaware of the ignition switch failure which lead to the injury or death of a number of individuals
Discuss each of the five COSO components and how each would improve internal control (this may be combined with item 2 or a separate discussion)
Use paragraphs that contain a complete, logical idea and headings that indicate the content of the section that follows
Explanation / Answer
and errors are serious problems for businesses and there are a lot of challenges for businesses to deal with them. These problems interfere with decision making and cause financial problems and losses.
Errors are frauds are usually common with small businesses. According to the research by association of certified fraud examiners there are around 30 percent of fraud cases which usually happen in small companies.
The small companies have to suffer and pay high price for the fraud and there is concern around addressing the problem proactively.
COSO has problems with internal controls which initially seemed promising. It turned merely into system instead of objectives or controls. It initially seemed like an interesting idea. But with time there were no practical implications and it inherently had conceptual weaknesses. The definition of internal control is vast and wide which makes management's every aspect as important part of management control.
Internal control is the process which is affected by the management, directors of board of entity. It has issued regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of operations. There were problems with reliability for financial reporting.
There are five important components and it is important to work on them. The five components of cosco are control Environment. There needs to work done regarding focus on integrity and defining ethical values, commitment to Competence, philosophy of management and operating style.
The second component is risk assessment which includes the objectives, process level objectives, identification and work on analysis.
The other components include control activities along with work on policies and procedures. Information and communication including quality of information and communication effectiveness. The fifth component includes monitoring and paying attention to separate evaluations and deficiencies in reporting
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