the.com/audit committee
the board's designated adults who read the fine print so the fraud doesn't happen twice.
means a subset of a company's board, usually independent directors, responsible for overseeing financial reporting, internal controls, and the external auditors.
from formalized after scandals like enron and worldcom, when it became clear that letting management grade its own homework was a bad idea; sarbanes-oxley in 2002 made independent audit committees mandatory for public companies in the us.
sox mandaterequired by law for us public companies since 2002
financial expertat least one member must qualify as such
independence rulemembers can't be company employees or paid consultants
whistleblower dutymust set up anonymous complaint channels
for instance
enron audit committee — approved off-book entities that hid billions in debt, 2001
wirecard supervisory board — failed to catch a 1.9 billion euro accounting hole, 2020
general electric committee — faced sec scrutiny over insurance reserve disclosures, 2019