COSO Seeks New Board Chair - Application Deadline Extended To March 20
March 17, 2009
FEI Summary
In January, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) commenced its search for a new chair of the COSO board. The current COSO board chair, Professor Larry Rittenberg, of the University of Wisconsin, completed a three-year term in 2008, and continues to serve on an interim basis during the board chair search.
COSO was formed in 1985 to sponsor the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting, an independent private-sector initiative that studied the causal factors that can lead to fraudulent financial reporting. The five sponsoring organizations of COSO are: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), American Accounting Association (AAA), Financial Executives International (FEI), The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).
FEI President and CEO Marie Hollein is serves on the COSO board as FEI's representative.
COSO is perhaps best known for its 1992 Internal Control-Integrated Framework. The framework is recognized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as a suitable, generally accepted farmework for purposes of internal control reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404. Additionally, AICPA references COSO in its standards for audits of private companies.
COSO continues to update its guidance in recognition of changing times. For example, in 2004, COSO published guidance on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). In 2006, COSO published Guidance for Smaller Public Companies.
On Feb. 4, COSO issued its latest publication: Guidance on Monitoring Internal Control Systems.
Information on COSO guidance and research reports published to date can be found here.
For information on the COSO board chair position, refer to the COSO Board Chair Position Description, which includes as an attachment COSO's Mission and Operating Policies as background.
The application deadline has been extended to March 20, 2009. COSO requests that applications be sent by email by March 20 to Jeff Thomson, President & CEO, IMA at jthomson@imanet.org .
For general questions regarding COSO or FEI's participation in COSO, please contact Edith Orenstein at FEI at eorenstein@financialexecutives.org or 973-765-1046.
Prepared March 17, 2009 by Edith Orenstein, director, Accounting Policy Analysis, Financial Executives International (FEI). This summary does not represent FEI opinion unless specifically noted above.