Reducing your spend on regulatory audit costs Is spending on audit too high, and projected to climb further in the coming years? Are more audits required this year than two years ago? If you answer yes to these questions, you aren’t alone. While many firms continue to spend more on audit, others are actually spending less. The [...]

The Canadian Securities Adminstrators (CSA) are in the process of finalizing the expanded requirements for executive compensation disclosure associated with Form 51-102F6 Statement of Executive Compensation. The implementation date should begin with those issuers, excluding investment funds, with fiscal years on or after December 31, 2008.

This means there is lots more disclosure work ahead for about 3600 issuers on the TSX and TSX Venture exchanges.

Q: How do you define IT GRC? Other than the three broad definitions contained in the research report (2008 Annual Report: IT Governance, RIsk and Compliance), all revolving around IT governance, risk management and compliance, we aren’t defining it. Rather, we’re letting the findings from the primary benchmark research going back almost two years, define what [...]

Does protecting customer data pay? We all sort of instinctively know that doing the right thing should result in better outcomes. This includes safeguarding and protecting customer data. The problem: unless it happened recently to you, no one could prove that it resulted in better business outcomes. Well, the evidence is in. Not only is protecting customer [...]

With so much concern about the global economy right now, executive pay is a hot topic. What seems to be out of sync, is the high levels of executive pay when earnings or share prices of companies are collapsing. Investors wonder whose interests are being looked after.

2007 was the first year that US companies begin filing new Executive Compensation Disclosure and Related Person Disclosure information in the form a new section to the annual reports called Compensation, Discussion and Analysis (CD&A). The SEC has expressed displeasure at the filings and has requested improved reporting.

Canada has proposed similar legislation for 2008 for Canadian public companies which will put a bright light on this topic "up north".

An article from HR Executive Resource Online " Doubting Executive Pay" released yesterday sheds light on this topic and the investor and employee discord surrounding it. Here is an excerpt:
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     After more than a year since new federal rules for the discovery of electronic information, it appears awareness among affected companies has grown though confidence in being able to meet those rules has actually declined. Journalist Christopher Hord reports on the cross disciplinary efforts of one state organization’s IT group and some of its advantages [...]

Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) have filed charges against Biovail for fraudulent accounting and a host of other items.

It took five years for that little "I missed my revenue forecast because my truck crashed on the way to the warehouse" story to finally cause some really big investigations and charges. I have to admit when I heard that story many years ago, I could not figure out how that had affected revenue but who knew?

It sounds like Eugene Melnyk and fellow Execs are going to have to come up with some pretty good answers for what the two agencies are alleging as fraud and undisclosed errors. Some serious charges of intentionally misleading investors.

Who knows, maybe Eugene will join the hallowed halls of prison in Florida with the likes of Conrad Black. According to an article today in the Globe and Mail, Conrad is quoted in the article, "I am doing fine," Mr. Black said in an e-mail to the Canadian Press from his Florida prison. "This is a safe and civilized place and I don't anticipate any difficulty."