FRAUDE CONTABILÍSTICA

Foi revelada mais uma gigantesta fraude contabilística, desta vez na India (contas fasificadas em cerca de 1 bilião de dólares).

"Raju [presidente do conselho de administração da Satyam, empresa da área da informática e das tecnologias de comunicação e informação] confessed to filling the company's balance sheets with "fictitious" assets and "nonexistent" cash in an extraordinary letter to the company's board on Wednesday."

Agora chegou o momento de se encontrarem as causas, e penso que serão as mesmas do costume: os incentivos para a gestão alcançar objectivos de curto prazo; a flexibilidade permitida pelas normas contabilísticas; a indexação da remuneração da gestão de topo a medidas que dependem de constructos contabilísticos; falhas de auditoria; conflito de interesses; notação de risco; evitar supresas negativas ao nível dos resultados alcançados que afectem a cotação das acções.

Depois das causas teremos as soluções, que penso também como as do costume: mais regulação; mais regulação; mais regulação. E pública (feita pelo Estado), pois a regulação que era feita por organismos privados também falhou, como por exemplo nos EUA, em que a supervisão da profissão de auditor deixou de estar sob a alçada do AICPA e passou para o PCAOB, na sequência da aprovação do Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA) de 2002.

E o Estado vai assim aumentando a sua dimensão e precisa de financiar estas suas novas funções e para se financiar precisa de cobrar mais impostos, e o resto da história não é preciso aqui discorrer.

Notícia do Yahoo Finance.

De acordo com a notícia, a empresa é cotada no Bolsa de Nova Iorque, estando portanto sujeita ao SOA de 2002, que foi uma resposta legislativa aos escândalos contabilísticos occoridos nos EUA, em empresas como a Enron e a Worldcom, contendo medidas muito exigentes ao nível do controlo interno das empresas (section 404) no sentido de prevenir este tipo de fraudes e a necessidade de ser elaborada uma certificação da veracidade da informação financeira pelos gestores de topo responsáveis por essa área (CEO e CFO) - section 303

Pelo facto de ter acções admitidas à negociação na NYSE tem que entregar na Securities and Exchange Commission (a CMVM lá do sítio) um conjunto de documentação, como este relatório anual (Form 20-F), onde consta a seguinte declaração do Sr. Raju:

"I, B Rama Raju, certify that:

1. I have reviewed this annual report on Form 20-F of Satyam Computer Services Limited;

2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the company as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4. The company’s other certifying officer(s) and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the company and have:

(a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the company, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

(b) Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

(c) Evaluated the effectiveness of the company’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

(d) Disclosed in this report any change in the company’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the period covered by the annual report that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the company’s internal control over financial reporting;

and

5. The company’s other certifying officer(s) and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the company’s auditors and the audit committee of the company’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent functions):

(a) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the company’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

(b) Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a significant role in the company’s internal control over financial reporting.

Dated this August 08, 2008"

Será que o SOX falhou?