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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Zia Sun(zsun) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: who cares? who wrote (4672)	10/6/1999 2:00:00 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 10354

SEC Moves for Even-Tougher Financial Audit Rules By Peter Ramjug Reuters WASHINGTON (Oct. 6) - Boasting that U.S. companies already have the most stringent financial reporting requirements in the world, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agreed Wednesday to hear comments on even tougher laws governing the financial reporting process. The regulatory agency voted to send out for the public's input new proposals to improve the disclosure about the functions of corporate audit committees and to strengthen the credibility of public companies' financial statements. Audit committees are subcommittees of a company's board of directors and charged with overseeing the quality of audits. The proposals, issued for a 45-day comment period, would require that companies' interim financial statements be checked by independent auditors before companies file their quarterly financial reports with the SEC. Companies would also have to include in their proxy statements a report from the audit committee that will say whether the panel has reviewed various issues with management and auditors, and whether anything in the statements raised a red flag. In addition, companies are required to say in their proxies whether the audit committee has a written charter, and file a copy of it every three years. ''I believe that the effective oversight of the financial reporting process largely depends on strong audit committees,'' SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt said at the start of a commission meeting. ''Qualified, committed independent and tough-minded audit committees represent the most reliable guardians of the public interest,'' he added. The SEC, concerned about audit committee members who were either unqualified or too friendly with company executives and looked the other way when serious accounting issues came up, said the proposals are an incremental but important approach to stopping companies from shifting the numbers around in order to meet Wall Street expectations. That issue, which SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt derisively called ''earnings management'' in a September 1998 speech, led to the creation of a panel of accountants, lawyers and Wall Street executives to improve the oversight of financial reporting by corporate boards. That panel, officially called the Blue Ribbon Committee on Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Audit Committees, issued recommendations about eight months ago that sought to make these audit committees more effective. The SEC's proposals are part of a bigger effort by the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq stock market and the accounting profession to raise the bar on corporate boards' financial reporting. But the SEC chairman doesn't expect these new rule proposals will change the ''cultural problem'' of companies issuing misleading financial statements. ''This rule alone will not solve the problem because it's a cultural problem of change,'' Levitt, who has served on numerous audit committees, said at the meeting. ''Going back 20 years there are any number of audit committees and boards whose culture is closer to that of a fraternity than a business,'' added Levitt, saying that people were chosen based on whom they were friends with, not on their qualifications. REUTERS Reut13:22 10-06-99 Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. A

To: who cares? who wrote (4672)	10/6/1999 2:28:00 PM
From: Francois Goelo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10354

Bunnie, what got you sued by ZSUN? Being a Short Selling Basher had anything to do with it, by any chance? Or was it the word twisting, innuendoes and misrepresentations? IMO, ZSUN WILL WIN in the END and you guys will have spent a good part of your (adult?) life fighting against it for NOUGHT... F. Goelo + + +