KPMG is looking for participants for the second annual Section 404 Benchmark Survey run under the firm's 404 Institute.
The survey is searching for anyone involved in their organization's compliance efforts -- regardless of their role in managing the process, working as a member of the compliance team, or participating in corporate governance -- to share their experiences as to how much improvement has been made during the second year of implementing the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
The Year Two survey will build on insights from the 2005 survey and allow for measuring and documenting the differences in companies' compliance efforts.
Key questions that the survey hopes to answer include:
- How has the number of key controls changed from Year One?
- Have deficiency rates gone down?
- What were the costs for Year Two and how do they compare to Year One?
- What will continue to be the biggest challenges?
- Did the effort and role of internal auditors change?
The survey is conducted online and is completely confidential. It should take approximately 15 minutes to complete, and survey participants will receive a detailed report of the findings, in advance of a general summary that will be posted to the 404 Institute Web site at a later date.The survey can be accessed at
The 404 Institute, launched nearly two years ago, was established to provide an open forum for the exchange of ideas and a venue for the development of research and leading practices related to compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley.
