The real costs of Sarbox compliance

So what is really driving the costs of compliance? A new survey from the  Institute of Management Accountants has identified the following:  1) a lack of useful guidance from the SEC or other organizations about what constitutes effective internal control--COSO is apparently not enough--and 2) Redundant testing by auditors and internal Sarbox resources--the survey suggests that the idea of achieving efficiencies via an integrated audit of internal control incrementally along with the traditional financial statement audit has yet to be put into practice. As fate would have it, planned SEC guidance to help companies comply with Section 404 is scheduled to be discussed at a Dec. 13 meeting. Actual release could be far in the future, however.

For more on the survey:
- Here's a press release