The Issues Of Internal Control Self-assessment Disclosure In The Listed Companies Of China

In recent years, domestic and foreign listed company executives’violations and illegal activities have been exposed frequently. From Enron to Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was taken over by the U.S. government,from Yinguanxia’s financial fraud to invest huge loss events such as three major airlines’ fuel hegding,countries recognize that building a specification and effective internal control system is imminent.Because the self-assessment report of internal control reflects the. listed company’s implementation of the internal contral some extent,the disclosure suffered more and more concern and attention by the parties.July2002, the U.S. Congress enacted the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act"(SOX Act for short). The bill set strict rules to the listed company’s internal controls and its disclosure.June2008,on the basis of referencing SOX Act,the five ministries issued new rules requiring listed companies should self-evaluate the effectiveness of internal control and disclose the annual self-assessment report annually,meanwhile,listed companies should hire accountants firm to audit the effectiveness of internal controls. April2010, five ministries issued internal support guidelines jointly.However, from "Basic Standards for Enterprise Internal Control" to "Enterprise Internal Control Guidelines" issued by five ministries,there is no specifically request on the listed companies internal contral self-assessment report disclosure’s form, content,format,etc. This makes listed companies have great autonomy, arbitrariness, and even understanding and awareness of bias,is bound to take adverse effects to the disclosure of listed companies’ internal control self-assessment report. Therefore, this article focused on the situation of China’s listed companies’ internal control self-evaluation report,to offer improvement suggestion to the existing problems,to improve the internal governance further, to provide economic efficiency of enterprises, and to provide decision-useful increase amount of information for all stakeholders.The paper adopted standardized methodology and studied along the ideas of problem-proposing,proble-analyzing,problem-solving. Firstly,after reviewing the research on internal control self-assessment of the domestic and international scholars,the pater started with a theoretical overview the disclosure of internal control self-assessment report in the first instance,specifically addressed the concept,features,content,quality requirements of the disclosure of internal control self-assessment report,and relevant theoretical analysis of it. Secondly,the paper pointed out the problems existing in internal control self-assessment report disclosure of the listed companies in China, mainly including four aspects.In clarity of the self-assessment report disclosure:responsibility main body of the report disclosure is ambiguous,and format of the report disclosure is non-standard; In integrity of the self-assessment report disclosure:the content of the report disclosure is not in details,and risk assessment information of the reports discosure briefly; In comparability of the self-assessment report disclosure:the title of the report disclosure is not unified,and the form of the report disclosure is casual,and the standards of the report disclosure is different; In reliability of the self-assessment report disclosure:the internal control defects and the improvement measures of the report disclosure is brief,and the report disclosure lacks of independent verification,and the key control activities of the report disclosure is brief. According to the problem,we can find out the reasons: responsibility main body of the report disclosure can not be understanded thoroughly,and the internal control guidelines have not yet to stipulate specified format; the report staffs exist deviations in understanding the five elements,and the listed companies ignore the importance of risk assessment and control;the internal control basic norms did not determine the name of the reports, and the internal control basic norms did not determine the form of the report disclosure,and the standards of the report disclosure have non-unified requirement; listed companies did not attach enough importance to internal control defect information, and the external supervision of self-assessment report disclosure does not reach the designated position, and the accountability mechanism of illegal displosure is not sound.Thirdly, by applying the comparative method,the paper introduced the situation and content of internal control self-assessment report disclosure in theUnited States, to get valuable experience from the internal control self-assessment report disclosure of the United States, to determine the responsibility main body of report disclosure, to strengthen the identification effect of the external auditor.Finally, the paper put forward the recommendations for improving internal control self-assessment report disclosure over listed companies in China, mainly including four aspects:refine internal control guidelines and enhance the clarity of report disclosure, improve professional level of relevant staffs to strengthen the integrity of the report disclosure, perfect the internal control basic norms to enhanced the comparability of the report disclosure, strengthen the supervision of report disclosure to enhance the reliability of the report. In view of our country at present the research on internal control self-assessment is less, this article has enriched the theoretical results on the internal control self-assessment report, Put forward feasible Suggestions to improve the internal control self-assessment report, we will further improve the enterprise internal management, standardize enterprise financial operation mechanism, improve enterprise economic benefits, Prompt supervision and administration institution can timely find the internal control defects, thus improve the quality of report information disclosure.