Boeing

Boeing's Sarbox woes continue as whistleblower emerges

Jim Kim — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:17:33 -0500

Recall that Boeing ended up in some PR hot water when its hometown newspaper ran a long series detailing its Sarbanes-Oxley compliance woes. Rarely does internal activity explode in the media as such. More Sarbox woes have just cropped up in the form of a whistleblower. Nicholas Tides, an IT employee, has alleged in a lawsuit that Boeing was disingenuous in its efforts to comply with the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, reports the Seattle P-I, which broke the big story mentioned above. Tides also charges that Boeing hired PricewaterhouseCoopers, who ended up violating auditing standards. This leak caused Tides to be fired, and he was also a source, one of dozens, for the Seattle P-I's Boeing original coverage.

For more:
- here's the article

Boeing still taking Sarbox hits

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:59:59 -0500

Boeing has taken some all-too-publicized hits for its Sarbanes Oxley program. The Seattle P-I took it to task with a string of negative articles that began in July. The articles, which chronicled the woes of its IT compliance efforts, offers a stark reminder to all companies that media coverage of your efforts are not out of the question. Disgruntled employees, some of whom may have valid things to say, can make your efforts that much harder. In a follow-up article, the paper reminds its readers of Boeing's problems and asks if defections have hurt its compliance program. You really do not need this sort of coverage. Do not lose sight of the fact that Sarbox compliance remains a media issue.

For more:
- here's the most recent Seattle P-I article

Related articles:
- Case Study: Boeing and Sarbanes Oxley
- Consultants and auditors, how are they aligned?

Who to blame: IT guys or the finance guys?

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:59:59 -0400

We've hit on the idea that the IT guys and the finance/compliance guys have really got to work together to ease the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance process. If not, you could easily end up in a Boeing situation, where all out warfare breaks out. The tension is evident at many companies. To add fuel to the flames, a new study has found that the 65 percent of audit and compliance managers say their IT colleagues "lack the knowledge of risk and compliance issues to collaborate on identity and access management." But only 42 percent of IT pros said audit and compliance managers "lacked sufficient technical expertise to collaborate." So the haughty financial and compliance types take a dimmer view of the other side, apparently. Obviously, reducing the tension and getting the whole organization working together is a key challenge--easier said than done. The good news is that both sides seem to acknowledge the gravity of the issues.

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

Case study: Boeing and Sarbanes-Oxley

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:59:59 -0400

The Seattle P-I offers a rare look at what goes on inside a major company struggling to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. This is a must-read article. Rarely, is the pain reported so clearly. For all its wizardry with jets, the company has struggled with Sarbox. One employee described the process as "pure hell." The same scenario is likely playing out at other companies. The company approached it like it was designing a new plane. But a deep rift between the finance and IT emerged and really hampered the process--something we've been warning about. The finance side said the IT side was too rigid; the IT guys said the finance guys kept changing their minds. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Jefferson Wells apparently were at loggerheads often. Sound familiar? Really this is a great example of all that can go wrong. For all the effort and pain, there are still significant deficiencies--despite millions of dollars and a bevy of high-priced consultants--that the firm must grapple with. A good place to start would be with the compliance culture. Of course that is the hardest thing to change.