NEW rules issued last week by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in response to the post-Enron collapse in public confidence in the US corporate sector could have major repercussions on Malaysian listed companies and their auditors if they were adopted by authorities here, said Ernst and Young country managing partner See Huey Beng.
The rules, which were released by the SEC last Wednesday to fulfil the mandate of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 in increasing independence and governance, require audit firms to change lead partners every five years and public companies’ audit committees to be made up entirely of independent directors.
