An Effectiveness Review of Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (2002)

The accounting scandals that occurred in the early 2000s launched the current day regulations set fourth in the Sarbanes Oxley Act. The Sarbanes Oxley Act is comprised of several titles, all aimed to help eliminate financial accounting errors and the potential of fraud. Within this piece of legislation, there is one section that has created a lot of discussion. Section 404, which discusses the way in which disclosures of internal control deficiencies are handled, is the topic of this paper. In addition to a literature review of a research paper written by Sarah Rice and David Weber, this paper will look at different elements to see if this section of the Sarbanes Oxley Act has changed the regulatory environment. Through comparative studies, this paper is aimed to see if the legislation created to stop these financial scandals from happening, was successful and effective