Sarbanes Oxley is the Mandate for the Current Internal Control Assessment Motivator Should be Increased Benefits from This Activity Says Probiti Whitepaper

May 17, 2005 -- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on 2 March 2005 that foreign private issuers have been given more time to comply with the requirements of Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Shaun Critten from Probiti says, "Whilst Sarbanes Oxley is the mandate for the current internal control assessment, the motivator should be the increased benefits arising from this activity. This now gives filers the time to achieve it."

Probiti Sarbanes Oxley Practice Leader Critten further stated, "This whitepaper considers some of the key tasks that need to be considered ensuring that Sarbanes Oxley S404 compliance is built into a sustainable 'Business As Usual' environment."

Many organizations have been busily focused on identifying and documenting internal controls throughout their material business units. One critical project risk is that implementation teams have been so driven to meet the assessment deadlines they often fail to take account of the 'bigger picture' - to take stock and examine 'are we still heading in the right direction' 'Are we developing something that adds value to the business, is sustainable, and will lower our operating risk, cost of capital, and increase shareholder value'At a point in future, the Sarbanes Oxley implementation team (comprising assessment, remediation, testing and other workstreams) will need to pass ownership of internal control evaluation to control owners under 'business as usual'.

Control owners will need to:
�Accept and acknowledge responsibility for the design and operating effectiveness of key controls
�Manage changes to the key control environment
�Ensure that control documentation is updated under version control
�Test key controls periodically
�Report key control sign-off and identified weakness as part of the S404 sign-off process.

Failure to address these issues could result in the S404 implementation effort being expensively repeated each year to support sign-off."

About probiti
Probiti is an international advisory practice with offices in Melbourne, Sydney and London. Probiti does not provide statutory audit or assurance services, which means we are able to provide independent and impartial compliance services. We provide internal audit and risk management solutions, with Training solutions to support client needs. Our Sarbanes Oxley, IFRS and Basle solutions are based around equipping the implementation teams to deliver projects effectively and efficiently.

Most of our professional staff individually have over 20 years experience in Sarbanes Oxley, Internal Audit, Business Continuity Management, Risk Management, Internal Control and Compliance. So though as an organisation we may be young, we have a long and experienced history.

Sarbanes Oxley is the Mandate for the Current Internal Control Assessment Motivator Should be Increased Benefits from This Activity Says Probiti Whitepaper

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Sarbanes Oxley is the Mandate for the Current Internal Control Assessment Motivator Should be Increased Benefits from This Activity Says Probiti Whitepaper

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