by James Lockhart-Smith, Maplecroft
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, International, Environmental risks
Most public companies in the United States have a reporting year that ends on December 31. Such companies must report their financial results with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within 90 days (by April 1 this year since the 90th day is a Sunday), or sooner if they are an “accelerated filer” as defined by the SEC.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, SEC, Accounting & Tax, Accountants, GAAP
If you’re responsible for hospital training requirements, and/or have responsibility for planning and carrying out a training program for your staff, you should know that OSHA regulations—such as the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS)—have been revised to conform to the UN’s Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, OSHA, Training, EHS, Hazcom
This is my third and final blog article on my thoughts on developments that may occur in 2013 in “Accounting Land” in the United States. I cover the activities at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Public Company Oversight Board (PCAOB), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and, finally, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, SEC, Accounting & Tax, Accountants, US GAAP, GAAP, IFRS
Everyone has relationships in the workplace. Many relationships are purely professional, while some add personal elements, and one or more may even be very personal. Anti-discrimination laws may impose scrutiny on any relationship where at least one person is a manager or supervisor, or the owner of a small enterprise. In the U.S. these include laws (including Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, and comparable state laws), regulations and enforcement guidelines (from by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and state equivalents), and court cases applying these standards. In Canada these include comparable human rights and occupational health and safety regimes.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Employer Best Practices, Employee Rights, Workplace violence, EEOC, NLRB
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to prepare and maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses (I&I Logs) as they occur. OSHA also requires employers to post an annual I&I Summary in each “establishment” within their workplace by February 1, summarizing that workplace’s I&Is during the previous calendar year. In states that administer federal standards within state-run programs, employers follow the comparable state requirements. Because of this posting requirement, January is the time to confirm that your facility has maintained an adequate I&I Log during the year, and to prepare your summary for each workplace.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, Workplace violence
SEC activities during 2012 have been dominated by its efforts to issue rules required by two major pieces of recent legislation:
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Tags: Corporate Governance, SEC, Audit Standards, JOBS Act
Ever since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the concept of internal control over financial reporting has taken on a new meaning. The U.S. Congress passed this legislation in part because of the failure of certain large companies, notably Enron and WorldCom, which met their demise in part because of real or perceived weaknesses in company internal control and less than adequate corporate governance. SOX reinforces the concept that company management is responsible for establishing and maintaining an adequate internal control structure and robust procedures for financial reporting.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, SEC, Accounting & Tax, Accountants, JOBS Act, SOX, Internal Control
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 prohibits U.S. companies from making bribes or other “corrupt payments” to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Concerns that this U.S. attempt to mediate its companies’ overseas activities might prove quixotic—and potentially disadvantaging—to American competitiveness have abated (although not disappeared) since the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) promulgated its “Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.” As of November 2012 the OECD Convention has been ratified by all 34 OECD member countries, and five others as well.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, SEC, Employer Best Practices, International
I am not a historian. My recollection of the massacre in Tiananmen Square is colored by teenage self-centeredness and the ramblings of a slightly ridiculous history teacher who I managed to ignore for nine months whilst acing the class. I am not proud of this.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, International, Internet, Intellectual Property