COSO Selects Grant Thornton To Lead Monitoring Project

January 8, 2007

FEI Summary

On Jan. 8, 2007, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) announced the selection of Grant Thornton LLP to lead a project team developing guidance on use of the monitoring component of internal control. The guidance will be designed to help organizations strengthen the monitoring of their internal controls, and in connection with assessments of internal control under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

The Grant Thornton project team will be led by Trent Gazzaway, Managing Partner of Corporate Governance

Grant Thornton is in the process of selecting a number of experts from the investor, preparer, and IT community, to serve on its “core advisory team” alongside Grant Thornton partners. Phil Livingston, Vice Chairman of Approva Corporation and former President and CEO of FEI, has been asked to serve on this core advisory team.  

COSO’s Project Task Force will include representatives from all five COSO sponsoring organizations (the American Institute of CPAs, American Academic Association, Financial Executives International, Institute of Internal Auditors and Institute of Management Accountants). There will also be observers from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and General Accountability Office (GAO).

Rick Brounstein, executive vice president of Calypte Biomedical Corp. and director, The CFO Network, will serve as FEI’s representative on the COSO Project Task Force. Brounstein Chairs FEI’s Small Public Company Task Force and served as a member of the SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies. He will also chair FEI’s new Task Force on Monitoring (TFM), comprised of FEI members from a cross-section of public, private, large and small companies, which will closely follow this COSO project.

COSO’s guidance on monitoring will be for companies of all sizes, and can be utilized by both public and private companies.

The initial publication slated for issuance under COSO’s monitoring project is a white paper scheduled for release in early spring, 2007. The complete project will include release of an Exposure Draft later in 2007, followed by a public comment period, with final guidance scheduled for completion by early 2008.

Further details are in COSO’s press release.  Updates to this project and related documents will be posted to www.coso.org.

Prepared Jan. 8, 2007 by Edith Orenstein eorenstein@FinancialExecutives.org, Director, Technical Policy Analysis, Financial Executives International (FEI). This summary does not represent FEI opinion unless specifically stated above.