If government is serious, then SEC need$ help! (Opinion: the free and open forum for the tax and accounting community)

Accounting Today, June, 2002 by Bill Carlino

If you were a midsized government organization and were given a budget of $438 million, chances are you'd be pretty happy with your prospects of operating successfully throughout the ensuing fiscal year.

But if you're the Securities and Exchange Commission, a budget of $438 million would be akin to dinner for two at New York's Four Seasons for under $20.

At a time when investors' faith in the capital markets and in earnings statements of publicly held companies have the credibility of Miss Cleo's psychic hot line, the SEC is, in short, understaffed, underpaid and the "O" word--overworked.

On a recent radio talk show, Sen. Chris Dodd, D.-Conn., made a statement to the effect that the staff of a typical congressional representative is larger than the...