Ethics Article Review

The CPA firm; a necessary audit for today's small businesses. A Certified Public Accountant is responsible for auditing and income tax work for their clients. (Myers, 2005) Over the years the environment has changed, but the most significant change of all was the passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, this federal law established the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. This law covers all organizations and requires public companies to evaluate and disclose the effectiveness of their internal controls as they relate to financial reporting, and that independent auditors for those companies attest to the disclosures. (Wikipedia, )

Amgen as all other public companies have been affected by this. Amgen has quarterly reports that must be done on many accounting and security related practices. I for example am responsible for maintaining proper records of all users and security permissions of various electronics systems for reports.

Based on the article, I agree that is extremely necessary for Amgen and other companies to maintain proper records to ensure that audits go as smooth as possible with full transparency. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was not designed to publish companies that are ethical. It was to ensure that companies are. If companies comply with this Act wholeheartly, these strict restrictions, and compliance laws would not have to be in place. Amgen is making the right choice to allocate resources in getting this done in a timely manner.

References

Myers, R. (2005, October 2005). Not Your Grandfather's CPA Firm. Retrieved June 19, 2007, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=907015791&sid=6&Fmt=4&clientId=2606&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Wikipedia (). Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Retrieved June 18, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act