What constitutes a good job by an audit committee?

The audit committee at VeriFone Holdings seems to be taking the bull by the horns. It led an internal investigation into inventory accounting issues that turned up a hornet's nest of problems that will force the company to restate earnings for several periods. Ouch! In response, the committee seems to be doing everything right. It is implementing remedial measures for finance department breakdowns and better controls, it fired the supply-chain controller, and it will devote additional resources to inventory issues, as well as segregate the duties of the financial planning and the accounting/control functions. All fine steps. But you have to wonder, if things were so bad, shouldn't the committee have been on top of this before it got out of hand? Again, it takes a lot to be a real audit committee member.  

For more:
- here's an article from cfo.com

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