Sarbanes-Oxley

[CovertOP]

It has taken some time for companies to set up policies to comply with this bill. Sounding innocent enough corporations are supposed to have internal auditing procedures and make efforts to certify financial affairs.
As an engineer with 20 years in the manufacturing business I can easily testify that this bill creates staggering losses unseen by the very same bean counters who set it up.

Anyone who does taxes can relate to the complexity of accounting speak, which IMHO is very similar to Newspeak. I chose engineering, it is a hard science, rather than accounting as I have little patience for bullshit.

First off more and more of my job function has been diverted away from the solid and creative engineering functions. In recent projects man days have been lost drawing up paperwork and seeking three competitive bids for items so specialized that they are mostly made by a sole company.

Secondly in a large company with several manufacturing locations transfer of equipment unused at one facility but still very useful at another has ceased. The transfer of say a laser welding system now takes literally weeks of accounting permission,valuation,asset transfer, move cost estimates and so forth. Gone are the days when I drove my truck up there and they loaded it on.

Third, when one location closes down and leaves thousands of dollars worth of brand new electrical components still in the box. Upon seeing this I asked for items that our location could use. It was not in the time schedule to inventory all of these items. The dumpster company was the proud recipient of these brand new components.

Financial concerns and policy have become a priority above all others. A business mantra of compliance uber alles has developed and with it each zampolit beancounter's ego, inflamed to new dimensions are having their way with us the engineers. Guess what? It's tax day every day, sort of like the movie Ground Hog Day.

All this while whole factories go overseas because, what was it now, it's too expensive here. There is no indicator however measuring the wasted man years this law created.
That program it seems is no longer useful and like fashion has been stuffed into the business concept recycle bin along with any hope of American business ever being
"competitive in the global marketplace".
Vomit bag not optitional.

[liberal N proud]

1. For most companies SO is a huge money pit where the group

who is implementing has a blank check to purchase whatever whenever all in the name of Sarbanes-Oxley.
I tries to get a our database updated, but the SO group was able to purchase a new program without a selection or bid process. And my organization is assigned oversight of the database.

[CovertOP]

2. Brownshirtism

is yet another factor. Even in a large company with multiple locations useful equipment, material, and numerous other factors can no longer be transferred from one location to another. They have stressed this to such and extent that things go into the dumpster before they let another location within the same company have and put to good use these materials. The change has been sofast and so complete there is no better way to describe it other than the tactics of Nazi Germany and the Brownshirts. I will be using this word frequently and often in my stay here. It offends Sean Hannity greatly, so it must be a good thing.

[napi21]

3. CovertOP, the people in your Acctg. Dept ate IDIOTS!

I worked in Corp. Acctg. for 40+ years, and what you described is NOT necessary! That may be what THEY tell you, but they're wrong!

I was the Dir. of Accounting most recently, and if someone wanted to transfer a piece of equipmemnt from one plant to another, they'd call me and ask, I'd call my staff accountant and say get me the book value of this piece of XXXXX and a rough estimate of the cost to send it to XX. I'd have the answer the same day. IF the NBV of the equipment was $.00, it took a logical assessment to decide if it was worth shipping or not. I made that decision and called the requestor back within 24 hours. All that complies with Sarbaines/Oxley.

The people who are blaming their inefficiency on the law are using it as an excuse for blatant laziness! If you don't have to do it today...or not at all, then don't, and tell everybody it's the new laws!

It's also extremely stupid to scrap valuable inventory because it takes a little time to count! Inventory is sold all the damn time in a lot =/- 10% and the business uses their own inventory records to state the qty.

The whole story tells me you should really get another job, because this Co. is destined to fail!

[CovertOP]

4. Yes

but this is what is happening. It is very real and undermines our competitive egde which I truely believe is deliberate. The mantra is that a policy is formed, irrelevant is there is adequate manpower resources or anything else to carry out the terms of the policy. Manmonths are wasted on this crap literally. My company is very large and I dare not speak it. Stay tuned for more.