Internal Controls Quotes

You have to know accounting. It's the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization. I've heard it came to civilization through Venice which of course was once the great commercial power in the Mediterranean. However, double entry bookkeeping was a hell of an invention.

But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external controls nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Governance is very important in NBFCs.

A lot of people think if you just had more process and more compliance -- checks and doublechecks and so forth -- you could create a better result in the world. Well, Berkshire has had practically no process. We had hardly any internal auditing until they forced it on us. We just try to operate in a seamless web of deserved trust and be careful whom we trust.

The reaction of weak management to weak operations is often weak accounting.

I always assign auditors to strictly supervise the businesses.

It is well known that you can only manage what you measure, and as this is the job of professional accountants, it means they have huge influence on companies' governance.

There are no accounting issues, no trading issues, no reserve issues, no previously unknown problem issues.

Can a bank that is part of this society be sure that it has no bad apples? No, because, like in all other industries and companies, it's about people, and what you see is the reflection of the good and bad in society. So you employ people that you think are honest, but you have to manage them more and more with an eye towards missteps.

We are a very systems- and process- driven business which reports directly to the board, whether it is risk or legal.

But the culture has failed, almost entirely, in inculcating internal controls on actions that have their origin in authority. For this reason, the latter constitutes a far greater danger to human survival.

As a company, we have to be very transparent. We are in a business very related to finance, and I want this company to last long, and I want this company to be audited by everyone.

Corruption is a huge problem and the poor and the powerless are often its most egregious victims. But it is not an accident that the most effective bureaucracies in the world rely much more on internal controls rather than on independent ombudsmen.

Virtually all Federal accounting is still oriented toward preventing fraud and theft, not toward controlling costs.

Operational risk is the risk of loss resulting from bank operational failures, such as rogue traders, fraudulent sales practices, and cyber risks. Operational risk capital is money or assets that banks have to hold to shield the economy from the consequences of these kinds of failures.

I used to sign vouchers and sign-out sheets with 'Alexandra Dee.'

We needed someone to recognize the importance of check and balances, accountability, transparency. There was a real systemic problem at South Carolina State, a problem that has gone on for 25 or 30 years

In any given day, our administration has about 2 million employees, and things happen. We put in process procedures to make sure if there has been any wrongdoing, there will be appropriate consequences, and we will move on.

Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more of it there must be without.

Accounting for the most part, remains a legalistic and traditional practice, almost immune to self-criticism by scientific methods.

Accounting is a big subject and there are huge forces in play. The entire momentum of existing thinking and existing custom is in a direction that allows terrible follies to happen, and the terrible follies have terrible consequences.

Preventing staff from having too much influence and decision-making power is fairly easy. Appropriate procedural safeguards can be installed to prevent staff from, among other things, self-dealing, making decisions in an isolated manner, or committing funds without oversight.

You can't keep fraud out of the system. The key to good regulation is how quickly you catch it.

A board of directors that cannot produce reliable audited financial statements for almost seven years simply should not remain in office.

We've done all the work that needs to be done on the inside to make sure there's no malfeasance inside Chrysler.