Said Ouedraogo

What are some current system-related risks that you have experienced in your organization?

– Employees leave their desktop without locking it or signing out.
– Employees go to insecure websites

Deploying appropriate internal controls can be part of the auditor recommendations. Or isn’t he/she allowed to make recommendations?

How does the control environment affect IT?

Control environment is the set of values, policies, and procedures defined by the management of a company. It affects IT to the extent that those policies and procedures can be applied to IT. In other words, control environment can set the procedures to follow in IT and/or defined how the IT…[Read more]

What is the purpose of all auditors having some understanding of technology?

Nowadays, businesses use technology to operate or to generate revenue. An auditor whose job it is to carefully check the accuracy of business records must have a minimum understanding of technology. In fact, the more technology he/she understands the better he/she will…[Read more]

What issues did you identify from this video?

The video portrayed the lack of a security awareness of some employees. In fact, employees from this company are not aware of the risks they are taking by not securing sensitive information. For example, Rebecca left her password on her desk. By doing so, her coworkers were able to login on her…[Read more]

Yes you are right, as a private investment firm his firm was not required to be audited by firms registered with PCAOB created under SOX; which allowed him to “fabricate his books”. That’s why I am saying that laws like SOX should be more strict and applicable to firms other than publicly traded corporations.

I agree with you guys. As a compliance driven control helps increase profitability in some case, it can also drive a company out of business. Considering the example in your post Priya where a company chooses to use raw material of grade B instead of raw material of grade A. What if grade A is the standard and the company can’t afford it?…[Read more]

I did receive from time to time some orders that were not in the system. In that case I just have to call the warehouse or the gas station where the gas was delivered and ask them to verify the order number and the ticket. If they received the product and the ticket they will have to do an entry in the system, otherwise I pass the invoice to my…[Read more]

I do agree with you, but I just think SOX is not enough because corporate fraud still exist. We still have inside trading and people like Bernard Madoff who will always take advantage of the system. Also, SOX laws really focus on management and high hierarchy employees. What about the accounting assistant at the bottom of the pyramid? The point is…[Read more]

Describe a business process you have experienced (either as an external or internal participant) and what your role was.

I was an inventory accounting assistant for Total, an oil and energy company. My job was to process gas transportation suppliers’ invoices and entered them in SAP for payment. Those suppliers transport gas from one w…[Read more]