Majority of Chief Audit Executives Say Not to Repeal SOX

A new survey of more than 300 chief audit executives by Grant Thornton found that 88 percent do not believe that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act should be repealed, though half said the shifting regulatory landscape poses the greatest threat to their company.

The research also found that of those that believe SOX should be repealed, the cost of compliance is the main reason for doing so.

“Since the passage of SOX, organizations have had to dedicate significant resources to comply with a host of new laws and regulations,” said partner Warren Stippich, who leads Grant Thornton’s national governance, risk and compliance solution practice. “Based on discussions with various CAEs during the survey process, many believe that SOX brings a continued focus by management on financial and governance-related controls. However, CAEs believe that compliance audit processes are now well-defined and are currently exploring ways to contribute value creation to the organization well beyond compliance monitoring and reporting.”

The survey also showed that 69 percent of CAEs surveyed said their organizations use cloud computing technologies, and 45 percent expect their organization’s use of the cloud for hosting applications to increase in the next 12 months. Meanwhile, 64 percent indicated cloud computing is not part of their organization’s internal audit plan and 43 percent of CAEs surveyed have yet to give any thought to security, governance, risk and controls in a cloud environment. 

The 2011 survey of U.S. CAEs was conducted in November and December 2010. Respondents came from public and private companies with a wide range of revenues from across the United States.

For more information on Grant Thornton’s survey, visit http://www.grantthornton.com/CAESurvey.

 

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