Big bath charges are not always related to restructuring. In April 2001, Cisco
Systems Inc. announced charges against earnings of almost $4 billion. The bulk of the charge, $2.5 billion, consisted of an inventory write down. Writing off more than
a billion dollars from inventory now means more than a billion dollars of less cost in
the future period. This an example of what ultra-conservative accounting in one period
makes possible in future periods
3.2 Abuse of materiality
Another area that might be used by accountants to manipulate the earning is the
application of materiality principle in preparing the financial statements, this principle
is very wide, flexible and has no specific range to determine where the item is material
or not. SEC uses the interpretation ruled by the supreme court in identifying what is
material; the supreme court has held that a fact is material if there is a substantial
likelihood that the fact would have been viewed by reasonable investor as
having significantly altered the “total mix” of information made available (SEC, SAB
No. 99, 1999).
The SEC has also introduced some considerations for a quantitatively small
misstatement of a financial statement item to be material:
. whether the misstatement arises from an item capable of precise measurement or
whether it arises from an estimate and, if so, the degree of imprecision inherent in
the estimate;
. whether the misstatement masks a change in earnings or other trends;
. whether the misstatement hides a failure to meet analysts’ consensus
expectations for the enterprise;
. whether the misstatement changes a loss into income or vice versa;
. whether the misstatement concerns a segment or other portion of the registrant’s
business that has been identified as playing a significant role in the registrant’s
operations or profitability; and
. whether the misstatement involves concealment of an unlawful transaction.