Monday, November 26, 2007

The 8th EU Directive - No SOX for Europe

The Shaping of Controls Lies in Companies' Own Hands

The opportunity to discuss this and other topics relating to internal auditing attracted more than 700 participants to the German Institute of Internal Auditing (IIR) congress recently held in Cologne at which celebrity speakers such as Jürgen Tiedje of the EU Commission shared their views and some straight-talking answers.

"It's not as if the 8th EU Directive were a European variant of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX). Europe is not going to experience a 'EURO-SOX' or any kind of 'SOX light'." This was one such straight-talking answer from Jürgen Tiedje. And he should know, since he is Head of Unit Auditing at the European Commission in Brussels, the source of the 8th EU Directive. "On the contrary, companies have full organisational liberty to arrange for appropriate internal controls and especially for vigorous internal auditing." This is a clear answer on the part of the Brussels commission to the central question predominating the corporate governance debate regarding the details of impending auditing legislation for companies resident in the European member states. In his talk addressed to Germany's internal auditors at their trade congress, Tiedje explained that the EU will not be emulating the United States model of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, particularly in order to avoid what is viewed by the Brussels authorities as an excessive bureaucratic upheaval, but also in view of the diversity of corporate and business cultures that exist.

The 8th EU Directive - No SOX for Europe

Labels: 8th EU Directive, European Basel Accords

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Monday, April 16, 2007

'Dirty Data' is a Business Problem, Not an IT Problem

Over the next two years, more than 25 percent of critical data in Fortune 1000 companies will continue to be flawed, that is, the information will be inaccurate, incomplete or duplicated, according to research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc. Gartner expects that three-quarters of large enterprises will make little to no progress towards improving data quality until 2010. To gain competitive advantage from information, organisations need to identify ‘data stewards’ in the business and manage information as a corporate asset.

Speaking at the company’s inaugural Business Intelligence and Information Management Summit in Sydney this week, Gartner Research vice president Andreas Bitterer said that “dirty data” or poor data quality is an often-overlooked business issue and it can have a large negative impact on a business.

'Dirty Data' is a Business Problem, Not an IT Problem

Labels: Austrailia, European Basel Accords, Privacy Act, sarbanes oxley

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