What to do about Sarbox auditing?

July 25, 2007 from IT Business Edge – “A report from AMR Research indicates that Sarbanes-Oxley compliance spending will reach $32 billion next year — the majority of which is allocated to outside consultants. AMR vice president John Hagerty notes, “If there’s a clear winner here, it’s the auditors themselves.”

And though one might think that competition between firms for big Sarbox audit contracts would be fierce, Sarbanes-Oxley prevents audit firms from performing internal compliance consulting for the companies they audit. As such, those companies often hire one firm for consulting and another to do the audit.”

180 View – This is not what’s happening in Canada where the external auditor is not prevented from reviewing controls based on Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) guidelines.