Information Tectnology Audit Requirements Comparative Analysis of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Sarbanes- Oxley Act (SOX) - Term Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages n response to the increased cases of bribery and other economic scandals of a national proportion, the Congress passed into law two critical Acts, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) and Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977 was enacted to enforce precise companies’ record keeping systems, increase accuracy in financial recording, and to reduce bribery and corruption loopholes in the business system. The Sarbanes Oxley Act, 2002 was passed twenty years after the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act with the core objective of reducing bribery and corruption in the America cooperate sector1.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 was projected to ensure that all chief finance officers and public companies’ chief executive officers provide an accurate financial report while Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, 1977 was designed to ensure that, all business financial information was recorded in accordance to the existing financial provisions. In the first twenty years after the enactment of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act 1977, the American Security and Exchange Commission and the America Department of Justice did very little investigations to necessitate a helpful enforcement of the Act, reducing its impacts in countering corporate bribery and other business malpractices.
However, after the WorldCom scandal and Enron scandal in 2002, the United States of American government was forced by the prevailing state of affairs to enact Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 to offset the ever-increasing cases of cooperate malpractices as well as to advance global awareness on the harmful impacts of business bribery and other malpractices. The enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 was at that time intended to make bribery penalties extremely severe and to increase public awareness on the need for an accurate financial accounting and record keeping in business operations. Taking into account the level and nature of the outcomes of bribery in global economy, especially ...Download file to see next pagesRead More