What is the importance of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Greetings Keek!
The importance of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was signed into law by
President Bush on July 30, 2002 is that attempts to safe guard
investors by improving the quality of corporate dislosures.

"The act was designed to review dated legislative audit requirements.
The goal of the act was to protect investors by improving the accuracy
and reliability of corporate disclosures. The act covers issues such
as establishing a public company accounting oversight board, auditor
independence, corporate responsibility and enhanced financial
disclosure."

"One key element of the Act is to require a report of the internal
controls a company has in place to ensure compliance with the Act
itself. Section 404 mandates that CEOs and CFOs must file Internal
Control Over Financial Reporting and Certification of Disclosure in
Exchange Act Periodic Reports. The SEC published the final form of its
rules and guidelines on the content of these reports in June of 2003."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act

Other sites that you may be interested in...

Summary of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
http://www.aicpa.org/info/sarbanes_oxley_summary.htm

A Laymen's Summary of All 11 Titles
http://www.csbs.org/government/legislative/misc/2002_sarbanes-oxley_summary.htm

An Overview of the Major Points in the Act
http://www.cpeonline.com/cpenew/sarox.asp

The Full Text of the Act
http://www.legalarchiver.org/soa.htm

Have a great evening and thank you for using Google Answers!

Best,
djbaker-ga

Thank you!!!

I think you probably missed the most useful resource on the net here.
That is the Sarbanes-Oxley Forum at:
http://www.sarbanes-oxley-forum.com

On this site, select the forum itself. Many hundreds of SOX related
questions are discussed and answered, by some of ther biggest names in
the business. It certainly beats reading yet another tedious overview
or summary!