Brian echoes my (and others) sentiments

This from Brian Sommer, my co-author of a report about SAP Business ByDesign and former senior director of Andersen Consulting’s (now Accenture’s) global Software Intelligence unit

Accounting firms just don’t get it. Their industry has become ever more irrelevant because of their inability to provide timely insights into business deals and operations. Every accountancy with a Wall Street audit client should publicly apologize for their firm and their industry’s inability to understand or clearly report the true financial situation each of these failed businesses faced. It is a damning embarrassment to the accounting industry that so many giant firms have failed in such short order and yet these companies received pretty clean audits just last year.

I am virtually certain that lawsuits will emanate from these spectacular failures and aggrieved litigants and shareholders alike will seek redress from the accounting industry. While I would like to be sympathetic, I cannot be. Auditing has to come back to its roots. It has to be about presenting the total picture of a company’s financial situation, warts and all. This selective inclusion or exclusion of multi-billion-dollar transactions is unacceptable and should have never been permitted in the first place.

I and others have been saying very much the same thing for years. So when someone like Brian comes out and validates that point of view, it is hard to disagree. The $64K question - is anyone out there listening? They should be.

PS - Francine is running a red, amber and green light tally on who’s got problems in all this and who hasn’t.

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