Case Study: Enron Corporation and Andersen, LLP----Analyzing the Fall of Two Giants
The accounting issues involved in Enron’s case are: 1) Valuation issues with international assets; 2) Aggressive accounting treatments towards SPEs; 3) Negligence of information disclosure, and 4) Dereliction of duty of internal auditing department.
The auditing issues involved in Enron’s case are: 1) Putting its reputation at risk, Andersen issued “clean” audit opinions on Enron’s financial statement; 2) Auditing and consulting services were provided by the same accounting firm, which led to conflict of interest and jeopardized integrity, and 3) The revenue of providing auditing service to Enron occupied so large a share of Andersen’s total revenue that it lost its independence when confronted to Enron.
Questions:
Q2. a. Every company should be headed by an effective board which is collectively responsible for the long-term success of the company. The board is responsible for providing entrepreneurial leadership of the company within a framework of prudent and effective controls that enables risk to be assessed and managed. The board should set the company’s strategic aims, ensure that the necessary financial and human resources are in place for the company to meet his objectives and review management performance. The board should set the company’s values and standards and ensure that its obligations to shareholders and others are understood and met. But the primary responsibility of the board of directors is to protect the shareholders' assets and ensure they receive a decent return on their investment. b. The board of directors definitely could have prevented the fall of Enron. First of all, if the board of directors made the right strategies for Enron rather than created hundreds of SPEs to remove assets and debts off balance sheet, the