Scott Taub named SEC acting chief accountant

Strategic Finance, Dec, 2005 by Kathy Williams

Scott Taub, a deputy chief accountant at the Securities & Exchange Commission since September 2002, has been named acting chief accountant. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox made the announcement last month.

Before joining the SEC staff, Taub was a partner in the Professional Standards Group of the former public accounting firm Arthur Andersen in Chicago. He also served as a professional accounting fellow in the SEC's Office of Chief Accountant from June 1999 through June 2001.

Donald Nicolaisen, former chief accountant, stepped down recently.

Is Corporate Fraud Still Prevalent?

Definitely, according to the results of a recent Oversight Systems survey of certified fraud examiners. Of the 208 respondents, 67% said institutional fraud was more prevalent today than five years ago (just look at the business press headlines), 26% said they see no change, and 7% said they thought it was less prevalent.

What types of fraud present the greatest risk to companies? The respondents said conflicts of interest such as purchase/sales schemes (63%), fraudulent financial statements (57%), billing schemes (31%), expense and reimbursements schemes (29%), bribery/economic extortion (25%), and inventory and noncash asset misuse (20%).

They also rated the tactics they felt would be most effective in preventing or deterring fraud: a clearly established tone at the top of the organization (41%), visible prosecution and conviction (22%), stringent and highly restrictive internal controls (17%), and a technology-enabled continuous monitoring of all financial transactions (17%). A few other respondents said a thorough, manual quarterly or yearly audit would work as would government regulation.

You may download the complete survey results for free at www.oversight systems.com/survey. And IMA members might want to review the new ethics guidance that was discussed in "Do the Right Thing" in the November issue of Strategic Finance and read the new Statement on Management Accounting (SMA) 1C, "Statement of Ethical Professional Practice," on the IMA website (www.imanet.org) in the Publications section.