Some 81 percent of chief financial officers and senior controllers polled in a national survey believe that the chief executive and chairmans posts should be separate, while nearly three-quarters (74 percent) indicated that shareholders should have greater access to the proxy to nominate directors.
The survey, conducted by CPA and business advisory firm Grant Thornton, polled 530 senior financial executives. Additionally, an overwhelming number (91 percent) felt that shareholders should be able to access the proxy online.
Although 71 percent of those surveyed felt that it was reasonably possible for a CFO to intentionally and materially misstate a companys financials, 92 percent felt it was impossible for auditors to detect all corporate fraud even if they were being intentionally misled by management.
Sixty-six percent of the senior financial executives in the GT survey felt that non-accelerated filers, or those with a public float of less than $75 million, should not be mandated to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley.
