also help companies deal with rapid

also help companies deal with rapidly changing economie and competitive envio ments and demands and priorities. Regrettably not all companies-- shifting customer even those that should know better have an effective system of internal controls. For instance inspector general report indicated that the FBI is by a recent ure vulnerabilities and security problems some of which were identified in an audit 13 years previously specific areas of concern were security standards. guidelines, and procedures: segregation of duties: access controls, including pass- word management and usage: backup and recovery controls: and software develop- ment and change controls. The Sarbanes-Oxley and Foreign Corrupt Practices Acts In 1977. shock waves reverberated through the accounting profession when Congress incorporated language from an AICPA pronouncement into the Foreign Corrupt Practices A The primary purpose of the act was to prevent the bribery of foreign officials in order to obtain business. A significant effect of the act, however, was to require corporations to maintain good systems of internal accounting control Unfortunately, the resultant improvement in internal control systems was rot sufficient to prevent further problems The airwaves and print media in the late 1990s and early 2000s were full of news of accounting frauds and problems at Enron. WorldCom. Xerox. co. Global Crossing. Adelphia, and other companies. When Enron. with $62 billion in assets, declared bankruptcy in December 2001. it was the largest bankruptcy in US. history In June 2002. Arthur Andersen, once the largest CPA firm. collapsed. The Enron bank- ruptcy was dwarfed when WeldCom,