ACCA holds discussion on financial reporting and controls
ACCA recently conducted a workshop on reviewing and reporting of financial controls based on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a law passed in the U.S.A. Conducted at Cinnamon Lakeside in collaboration with SJMS Associates and Echelon Magazine, the keynote speaker at this occasion was Ganesh Balakrishnan from Deloitte Haskins & Sells in Hyderabad, India.
With 20 years of experience behind him and appointed as the learning coordinator for Deloitte India on all training competencies, he is a regular speaker at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He is attached to the IFRS faculty with the institute for inhouse and open-house programmes and was a co-opted member of the Research Committee of the institute’s southern region for 2009/10 and of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board for 2010/11. In addition, he is a technical reviewer in the Quality Review Board instituted by the Government of India and serves as a faculty for Dunn and Bradstreet for its in-house and open-house programmes.
Balakrishnan commenced his address by stating that the establishment and monitoring of internal controls enables a better com- munication of the material factors that create value by being useful to various stakeholders that include shareholders, debtors, clients, employees and governments in understanding a company’s financial performance and the management’s stewardship of the company’s resources.
He explained that the two key components required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a financial report are internal controls and financial reporting. The management’s ability to fulfil its financial reporting responsibilities depends in part on the design and effectiveness of the processes and safeguards it has put in place over accounting and financial reporting.
Citing areas of importance in internal controls he pointed out that they included the control environment that consists of integrity, ethical values and competence of the entity’s people, the management’s philosophy and operating style, the way the management assigns authority and responsibility and organises and develops its people and the attention and direction provided by the board of directors.