Auditors should maintain professional skepticism. Here is yet another military veteraN  embellishing his career with outright lies. Interestingly no one bothered to investigate Charles Bass stories until a KPRC tv story brought him to the attention of a Colorado Veteran.  Charles Carlo Ponzi was exposed in similar fashion.  A reporter got to checking his background…

Monday July 13, 2009 at 12:15 Arlena Sones Internal Auditor with the City of San Antonio will speak in my Intermed II Accounting Class.  Familiarize yourself with San Antonio IIA  Internal Audit is perhaps the fastest growing segment of the accounting profession. SARBOX, accounting scandals et al have brought a demand to know what is…

Did you know there are over 40 accounting certifications? Traditionally it has been CPA, now there is Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Management Accountant, and several others particularly involving high tech.  This is a result of two things I think. First, accounting has grown to be a much larger profession, it is not just about external…

Grant Thornton scored a larger dollar increase (if I read the story correctly, it is not clear) than other firms for a recent period. They note these are not clients rejected by the Big Four but clients that switched from the Big Four. Note the client that helped get them there was a Chinese firm.  Not…

Opus West filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Nothing unusual about that these days but what issues does this raise for the outside auditor? What will fair value be?  What is an empty office building in a recession worth? What would you want the owners to guarantee if you were the outside auditor? Another dimension of…

I cannot verify the accuracy of this story but it certainly illustrates why we have need for internal auditors. Lesson, auditors need to exhibit 'professional skepticism.' A Well-Planned  Retirement* *From The  London  Times:* Outside the Bristol Zoo, in   England , there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses. It was…

For Want of a Nail is a famous proverb, click to read the proverb and some good analogies, butterfly effect, chaos theory for example. There is no question in my mind that the most important thing in any organization is communication. The failure to communicate leads to all sorts of problems. Here are two recent examples.…

Your accounting professors are now focused on a particular niche for our University. This niche should be unique to our Mission, providing opportunities for an underserved portion of San Antonio. In addition it should provide realistic dynamic opportunities leading to significant career opportunities.  We believe that opportunity is Internal Auditing.  Texas A & M College…

Enbridge Energy Partners EEP gives a good picture of how proper corp governance works in the SARBOX age. Take a look at their explanation of how the audit committee operates independent of the Board. Note that there is an anonymous tip line, many frauds are discovered this way, someone talks.