ENRON Case Study
1. The Enron debacle created what one public official reported was a “crisis of confidence” on the part of the public in the accounting profession. List the parties who you believe are most responsible for that crisis. Briefly justify each of your choices.
Following parties are believed to be the most responsible for the crisis.
With any big organization going so bad, the blame starts with the top level executives, there was no different in this case. For Enron the blame started with Enron’s executives, Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Andrew Fastow. Their goal was to make Enron into the world’s greatest company. To make this goal a reality, they created a company culture that encouraged “rule breaking” and went so far as to “discourage employees from reporting and investigating ethical lapses and questionable business dealings”. They insisted the employees use aggressive and illegal accounting procedures. Anderson was also responsible because they allowed Enron to use these fraudulent statements for 15 years. It is the auditor’s responsibility to question any unusual circumstances and reports and they failed to do so. They should have questioned the SPEs, should have noticed that notes receivable were reported wrong, and should have noticed that there was no internal control being practiced. Also, Anderson should never have practiced consulting services for a company that they audited.
2. Identify and lists five recommendations that have been made recently to strengthen the independent audit function. For each of these recommendations, indicate why you support or do not support the given measure. The ways company is governed today have gone on for a change given the reform in audit functions and the likes. As it is with the case, effective financial reporting is the sole concern of companies. Hence, in recent development there has been a dramatic shift towards corporate governance, because the capital market mostly feeds on the effectiveness of
Following parties are believed to be the most responsible for the crisis.
With any big organization going so bad, the blame starts with the top level executives, there was no different in this case. For Enron the blame started with Enron’s executives, Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Andrew Fastow. Their goal was to make Enron into the world’s greatest company. To make this goal a reality, they created a company culture that encouraged “rule breaking” and went so far as to “discourage employees from reporting and investigating ethical lapses and questionable business dealings”. They insisted the employees use aggressive and illegal accounting procedures. Anderson was also responsible because they allowed Enron to use these fraudulent statements for 15 years. It is the auditor’s responsibility to question any unusual circumstances and reports and they failed to do so. They should have questioned the SPEs, should have noticed that notes receivable were reported wrong, and should have noticed that there was no internal control being practiced. Also, Anderson should never have practiced consulting services for a company that they audited.
2. Identify and lists five recommendations that have been made recently to strengthen the independent audit function. For each of these recommendations, indicate why you support or do not support the given measure. The ways company is governed today have gone on for a change given the reform in audit functions and the likes. As it is with the case, effective financial reporting is the sole concern of companies. Hence, in recent development there has been a dramatic shift towards corporate governance, because the capital market mostly feeds on the effectiveness of
Cited: Gramling, A. A., Jenkins, G., & Taylor, M. (2010). Policy and Research Implications of Evolving Independence Rules for Public Company Auditors. Accounting Horizons, 547-566.