...Legality and Ethicality of Corporate Governance Nicolle Pack ETH376 / University of Pheonix Abstract The publicly traded company, United Thermostatic Controls, is currently in the middle of an internal audit. The different divisions of the company are regionalized according to their area. The southern division has had struggled with decreasing sales and is having a hard time reaching the target set for their sales. The company pushes the different divisions to be aggressive with increasing revenue and sales. Legality and Ethicality of Corporate Governance Corporate Governance is a combination of rules and regulations that function as a control mechanism to keep management operating ethically and legally. The absence, of corporate governance, would allow a company’s management team to operate under guidelines which may or may not involve integrity, responsibility, or accountability. The publicly traded company, United Thermostatic Controls, is currently in the middle of an internal audit. The different divisions of the company are regionalized according to their area. The southern division has had struggled with decreasing sales and is having a hard time reaching the target set for their sales. The company pushes the different divisions to be aggressive with increasing revenue and sales. Legality United Thermostatic Controls needs to be in compliance with certain laws and accounting regulations in order to maintain operations. These laws and regulations are the Sarbanes-Oxley...
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...Question | ONE Accountants owe the duty to act in a professional and ethical manner concerning clients, as well an obligation to respect the laws that are involved with the profession. This is where a crossroads of ethics and legalities are formed and potentially the defining point of crucial decision-making. Stephen Richards and his actions under employment with Computer Associates (CA) are then examined in light of this concept. Accusations against Stephen Richards permitting the backdating of contracts unlawfully were confirmed, giving sanction to the unethical nature of his behaviour. Henderson describes that illegal behaviour will not be deemed unethical when the legal system, accounting profession and society all agree upon the same moral assumption (p 944, 2011). Committing fraud is against the law, which is socially unethical as it is legally unethical. In this case however, the accounting profession challenges the acceptable accounting practices undertaken at CA, leading to the result of Richards’ choices. “[a]ggressive financial reporting was not [an] uncommon… [e]vidence suggested that earnings management… was a widespread corporate practice” (Soltes, 2011). This gave CA precedence to govern their firm by societal standards, and not solely by rules and regulations. In defense, CA’s audit did assure that financial statements were in accordance with GAAP (Soltes, 2011). It was therefore believed by Richards that the manipulation of reports was merely a reflection...
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...Riordan Corporate Compliance Plan Learning Team B Veronica Garcia Maribel Rojas Lorena Soto LAW/531 July 23, 2012 Roger Rodriguez Abstract The use of university resources and materials allows teach team members to create Riordan’s Corporate Compliance Plan. In the compliance plan students address the lawful responsibility of Riordan’s executives and presents solutions to situations, which laws have been violated and consequently propose corrective actions. Moreover, the compliance plan study includes relevant information, which further discusses Riordan’s enterprise liability, real, and intellectual property, the governance principles of regulatory compliance as well as international laws or aspects of such that Riordan must adhere to. Riordan Corporate Compliance Plan Riordan’s corporate compliance plan is not only essential but also critical to be in compliance with rules and regulations. The main focus of a corporate plan is essentially to focus on how the lawful responsibility of the executives of Riordan will manage and address situations that may arise. The compliance plan will also focus on what decisions need to take position when laws are not in compliance, when legal council is important and will establish what rights employees have and who individuals may turn to when actions are taken against the organization. Riordan Manufacturing has executed a business fulfillment plan designed accordingly to the organization’s areas...
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...of Submission: 23/09/2013 Assignment brief 1: Ethical issues Ethical issues that a business should consider in its operations. A case study of Safaricom Ltd. Business ethics are the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of business people. An ethical strategy is a strategy or course of action that does not violate these accepted principles. Ethics committee of Safaricom Company Ltd An Ethics committee has been constituted comprising of nominated Executive committee members and chaired by the Chief Executive Officer. The primary mandate of the committee is to be the oversight body that drives the ethics and integrity agenda in the company particularly monitoring ethics related programmes and activities to ensure ethics and integrity become part of day to day business. The ethics committee is also the guardian and custodian of the code of conduct which enumerates and enforces acceptable business conduct. Some of the key initiatives spearheaded by the Committee in the last financial year include; • Safaricom signing up to the recently drafted Kenyan Businesses Code of Ethics. The Kenyan Business Community under the directorship of the UN Global Initiative has developed a code of ethics to guide Kenyan businesses on matters relating to ethics. Safaricom took an active role in drafting the code and was one of the first companies to sign up to the code. • Kicking of a review of Safaricom Ltd.’s ethical position and ethics management process to identify...
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...ARTICLE SYNOPSIS Sarbanes Oxley Act is “an act passed by U.S. Congress in 2002 to protect investors from the possibility of fraudulent accounting activities by corporations” (“Sarbanes Oxley Act,” 2015). In the review of “The Cost and Benefits of Sarbanes Oxley”, the article started out speaking on how the SOX Act 2002 was designed to protect investors, but many felt as if it was politically motivated. This Act will cause to lose risk takers and competiveness. In today’s business environment, the Sarbanes Oxley Act molded the ethical standpoint to numerous companies. The SOX Act 2002 was designed to keep companies honest. The criminal penalty for this law is a fine and/ or 25 years, but no more than 25 years. The stiff punishment minimized the fraudulent ideas from individuals and firms. The SOX Act 2002 increased the consumer confidence. “We only know that there were benefits in terms of financial reporting and corporate governance; that costs of implementation were higher for smaller companies; and that concerns about risk-taking and investment haven’t come to bear” (“The Cost and Benefit of Sarbanes and Oxley,” 2014, p. 1). This article also goes and talk about the cost and benefits of the Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002. SOX restrictions pushed several fraud-prone companies to go private. These was mainly the smaller companies that were fraud prone. I believe overall Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002 was good for the consumer and economy. Yet, it’s still undetermined that the SOX...
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...Excello Telecommunications Abstract This paper will explain the legality and ethicality of financial reporting as it pertains to the Excello Telecommunications case. Other topics that will be touched on will be reporting standards, SOX Act criteria, and alternatives for Excello. Excello Telecommunications Introduction Excello has a dilemma with end of year reporting and in meeting their earnings estimates in accordance to calculations at the beginning of the year. What the CFO wishes to achieve is finding a way to include a large sale in the 2010 year-end reporting statements. By having a hold on the sale, and it remains on their property, they cannot claim this revenue. The team has to look into alternatives that will not only allow this claim but will also meet all GAAP standards. The Legality Mr. Reed discussed the issue with the controller Mr. Fuller and explained what he wanted to obtain on the reports. During this conversation Mr. Fuller advised Mr. Reed of legal criteria in reporting and Mr. Reed indicated that he did not want to break any laws, but he still needed to find a way around certain rules of accounting. When a meeting was called with the accounting department he made sure that the team understood both important aspects of the decision, which are to record the sale and to maintain all GAAP guidelines. At first this sounded like what Mr. Sullivan did is the previous case of Ms. Cooper and WorldCom but then after reading the section in Chapter...
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...------------------------------------------------- How Ethical CEOs Create Honest Corporations A book report We have seen in recent corporate history a litany of corporate scandals that rocked the foundations of the business world. Huge corporations whose economic outputs are larger than most of the developing countries have suddenly imploded under the weight of stock manipulation, unscrupulous accounting procedures and deliberate enculturation of business competitiveness anchored on ‘doing whatever it takes to win’. Small ethical cracks in the business foundation had gone too many and had been widely ignored by all of their stakeholders – employees, board of directors, stockholders, regulators, auditors and analysts. In the aftermath, we are faced with a realization of how fragile our economic system is and how much of it depends on values that are both difficult to measure and, in the current world, even more difficult to acquire. These are not mere economic values of profitability; but values of integrity, of truth, and of plain and simple honesty. It is in this context that the three authors - Patrizia Porrini, Ph.D., Lorrin Hiris, D.P.S., and Gina Poncini, Ph.D. - wrote this book. They do not seek to expound on the voluminous literature available discussing why and how these corporate scandals happened. They seek to provide answers to how effective CEOs build an ethical culture within an organization by providing actual cases of ethical companies that had passed the test of...
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...Riordan Corporate Compliance Plan LAW531 Professor John Huschen May 23, 2011 Riordan Corporate Compliance Plan Riordan Manufacturing is part of Riordan Industries; the company currently has around 550 employees and is worth $46 billion. “The company was founded by Dr. Riordan, a professor of chemistry, who obtained several patents relative to the processing polymers into high tensile strength plastic substrates” (Apollo Group, 2006). Dr. Riordan’s desire to become a successful business, reached new regions: Michigan, Georgia, and China. Alternative Dispute Resolution Alternative dispute resolution is part of Riordan Manufacturing’s new compliance plan and will be the primary method of resolving disputes versus litigation. In the event of problems, conflicts, or unfavorable action that may occur will evoke the need for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) measures. ADR should not be used to resolve personal issues in the workplace, only those that are work related or affect the production of work. In addition, ADR is a last resort measure and problems should be addressed by the immediate supervisor and employees are given avenues to report the dispute, which is by email and the company’s toll-free help line. The primary forms of ADR that Riordan Manufacturing will use are mediation and arbitration. “Mediation is a form of negotiation in which a neutral third .party assists the disputing parties in reaching a settlement of their dispute” (Cheeseman...
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...Ethics Case Halliburton Plc. & Washington Inc.: The Power of Politics in Corporate Business Success As a general rule, correcting market failures is best left to the government. Businesses cannot be trusted to get it right, partly because they lack the wherewithal to frame intelligent policy in these areas.[i] Free-market economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) states that if self-interested people are left alone to seek their own economic advantage, the result, unintended by any one of them, will be greater advantage for all. He maintains that government interference is not necessary to protect the general welfare.[ii] MBA 8111 Business, Government, and Society Introduction Governments have become the black box for corporate business success around the world. This paper will discuss the close relationship between business and government, using Halliburton as main examples throughout the case. Halliburton has often been perceived negatively by the public and has become a favorite target by Democrats for critics about conflicts of interest, undue corporate influence, hidden motives, accounting fraud, bribery, bilking the government, tax evasion, and trading with rogue nations.[iii] Its name has become synonymous with political cronyism.[iv] The current U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, who previously held the CEO of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, is criticized to facilitate the government contracts to be available to the company even though he...
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...glean an understanding of corporate tax shelters, in respect to legal and ethical considerations. Tax shelters are often viewed with negative connotations, yet the general public holds different perceptions of the various classifications of tax shelters, tax avoidance, tax evasion, and tax flight (Kirchler, Maciejovsky, & Schneider, 2003). While this suggests a tolerance based on legal concerns, there exists a growing accountability for corporate social responsibility, “whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities, and others stakeholders, as well as their environment” (Guliani, 2014, p. 1117). Part of this includes, “companies paying their due taxes and obeying the law” (Guliani, 2014, p. 1120). In order to analyze the ethicality of tax shelters, this paper will introduce a variety of corporate tax shelters, discuss corporate tax shelters in relation to tax avoidance and tax evasion, explore the impact of corporate tax shelters on stakeholders, and examine the affect corporate social responsibility has on tax liability. A Legal and Ethical Examination of Corporate Tax Shelters As each business embarks on a pursuit for profit, companies often find opportunities to reduce tax liabilities in the form of corporate tax shelters. Corporations should be aware that when reducing tax liability, they must consider the legality and the morality of their...
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...ABSTRACT: Incident at Morales is a story of the company that wants to quickly build a chemical plant and to be successful in this competitive world. It also includes a variety of ethical issues where every company has to consider while building a new plant and making a new product. In this story, Phaust Chemical manufactures old stripper, a paint remover that dominates the market. They made a decision to construct a new plant to develop a competing product. To design the new plant, Phaust recruits a chemical engineer, Fred Martinez, who had been a consultant to chemitoil. But, Phaust’s parent company in France, cuts budget 20% across the board. Chuck, the vice president for engineering at Phaust, pressurize Fred to cut down the construction costs. Due to that, many engineering decisions were confronted by Fred where ethical values are not considered. INTRODUCTION: Incident at Morales provides a number of chances for viewers to consider the resolution of difficult ethical issues containing international responsibilities, consequences of technical and financial decisions, and environmental concerns. This story teaches us many ethical values of the engineer that to maintain company secrets. Maria, wife of Fred Martinez and EPA compliance officer discuss about company issues in her house. Fred confronts several engineering decisions like using expensive controls manufactured by Lutz and Lutz, purchasing pipes and connectors which is made of stainless steel or a high pressure...
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...My View of Business Ethics Summary Paper of My ‘Ethical Position’ From My Experience, Knowledge And What I Have Gleaned From The Business Ethics Class. ABSTRACT The ability to recognize and deal with complex business ethics issues has become a significant priority in twenty-first century companies. In recent years, a number of well publicized scandals resulted in public outrage about deception and fraud in business and a demand for improved business ethics and greater corporate responsibility. The publicity and debate surrounding highly visible legal and ethical lapses at a number of well known firms, including AIG, Countrywide Financial and Fannie Mae, highlight the need for businesses to integrate ethics and responsibility into all business decisions. The field of business ethics deals with questions about whether specific business practices are acceptable. For example, should a salesperson omit facts about a product’s poor safety records in sales presentation to a client? Should an accountant report inaccuracies that he or she discovered in an audit of a client, knowing the auditing company will probably be fired by the client for doing so? Should an automobile tire manufacturer intentionally conceal safety concerns to avoid a massive and costly tire recall? Regardless of their legality, others will certainly judge the actions taken in such situations as right or wrong, ethical or unethical. By this very nature, the field of business ethics is controversial...
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...Running head: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters 1 Individual Project: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters Pamela Turner Professor Ann Nelson Contemporary Business 508 February 13, 2013 Strayer University INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters 2 Individual Project: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters Determine the most important five skills that a forensic accountant needs to possess and evaluate the need for each skill. Be sure to include discussion regarding the relationship between the skill and its application to business operations. The age of information technology there is a definite rise in computer crimes, financial frauds, employee thefts and securities scams, insurance and bank frauds. The forensic accountant searches out fraud and criminal transactions in banking, corporate entity or from any other financial records within an organization. Forensic accountants take a more proactive, skeptical approach in examining books of accounting. The base of a forensic accountant is accounting knowledge. The dispersement of the knowledge of auditing, internal controls, risk assessment and fraud detection. There must be a basic or general understanding of the legal environment. The legal environment is essential in order to support the litigation. A strong set of communication skills both oral and written (Houck, 2006). Forensic...
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...Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Introduction Business houses, right from the inception of human race, have been regarded as constructive partners in the communities in which they operate. Though they have been instrumental in creating employment, wealth, products and services, yet the pressure on business to play a role in social issues involving employees, stakeholders, society, environment, government etc. is continuously increasing. The society is questioning the existence of business houses, especially in the wake of the scandals and scams conducted by the business houses like UTI, Enron, and WorldCom. In response to it, the organizations around the globe are forced to wake up to the need for being committed towards Corporate Social Responsibility. Over the years this concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained unprecedent momentum in business and public debate and has become a strategic issue crossing the departmental boundaries, and affecting the way in which a company does business. It has become so important that many organizations have rebranded their core values to include social responsibility. Almost all corporate websites/ policies/reports talk about their endeavors for CSR which has become a way of ensuring that the organization is fulfilling all the obligations towards society and thus is eligible for the license to operate. It assures that the organization can grow on sustainable basis. These activities of CSR ranging from small...
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...INTRODUCTION Background of Siemens Siemens is a Germany-based company that established in October 12, 1847. It is one of the world’s largest electronics and industrial engineers firms. The products produce by Siemens includes industrial controls, lighting products, power generation equipment and transportation systems. Siemens operates in 190 countries worldwide with recent annual revenues exceeding $100 billion. Opening Case The case started when a senior executive at Siemens Company received a phone call from their business partner in Saudi Arabia. The person who made the call blackmailed Siemens to pay $190 million in U.S currency otherwise he will disclose the corruption made by Siemens in order to win contracts in Saudi Arabia. Since then, the series of events started whereby there are police raids, forensic investigations and arrests top of executives in Siemens. Based on the case, the investigators believed that Siemens has a culture of corruption, that endorsed by senior managers in order to win contracts. The way of bribe used is by the managers will bring the money in their suitcases with confident that they are doing “business as usual”. Case Chronology Started in 1970s until 2007, Siemens has being alleged for a series of scandal include accusation of bribery given to government officials in numerous countries around the world. The actions included one of the former executive of Siemens was accused for handling $77 million in bribes while another situation...
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