KU ticket scandal

[LenexatoKCMO]

nobody has any idea what auditors were charged with looking it.  Falling back on 'audit didn't catch it' is a joke and frankly a pretty big cause to be fire in itself

We are talking about their annual external audits.  There is not big mystery about what that means, so why are you pretending there is?  These audits exist largely for the very purpose of relieving executives of the need to pour over every detail of an organization's finances themselves.  Detecting this sort of thing is precisely why you hire a neutral outside party to perform them every year rather than just rely on the books presented to you by your staff. 

[NDTeve]

We are talking about their annual external audits.  There is not big mystery about what that means, so why are you pretending there is?  These audits exist largely for the very purpose of relieving executives of the need to pour over every detail of an organization's finances themselves.  Detecting this sort of thing is precisely why you hire a neutral outside party to perform them every year rather than just rely on the books presented to you by your staff. 

But KCPowercat thinks that KU was getting a deal from BKD...any substantiation to that garbage?

[KCPowercat]

huh?  Where did I even hint that?

my point is the big old annual external audits are largely a big picture, make everybody feel warm and fuzzy audits....internal audit and employees themselves should have caught this (with proper separation of duty controls setup by the 'leader') but to say 'bkd didn't catch it so how in the world could we?' is largely a joke....externals just don't know your bsuiness like you do...believe me, I field questions from externals.  They check the box, make sure the big picture numbers are in order, and move on....my guess is they aren't getting close to the level of granularity of pouring through details of how comp tickets are distributed or even the 'pool' of season tickets.....

[bobbyhawks]

huh?  Where did I even hint that?

my point is the big old annual external audits are largely a big picture, make everybody feel warm and fuzzy audits....internal audit and employees themselves should have caught this (with proper separation of duty controls setup by the 'leader') but to say 'bkd didn't catch it so how in the world could we?' is largely a joke....externals just don't know your bsuiness like you do...believe me, I field questions from externals.  They check the box, make sure the big picture numbers are in order, and move on....my guess is they aren't getting close to the level of granularity of pouring through details of how comp tickets are distributed or even the 'pool' of season tickets.....

Then the auditors you deal with don't sound like they are doing their jobs.  Sarbanes-Oxley and other laws were created because of collusion with external auditors and lack of attention to detail/accountability on both sides of the coin.  If there was revenue from ticket sales not reported somewhere or lost to the degree of $3 million, they absolutely should have caught it.  The problem with external auditors sometimes is that they wish to keep clients, so sometimes aren't as hard on them as they should be.  I have no idea where you get this notion that external auditors are brought in to make people feel warm and fuzzy.  An "opinion" issued based on findings can do a lot of things, including bring litigation to both the entity being audited and the audit firm who did not uncover an issue they should have encountered in a reasonable inspection of financial records.  External auditors for the most part take this very seriously because no company wants to appear under a firestorm even a fraction the size of Arthur Anderson.

[KCPowercat]

not the case at all....in the situation I deal with or external auditors overall.  They don't know your business like you do, they are not there so you can wash your hands of any wrongdoing done inside your company.

[loftguy]

I agree.  Simply read the disclaimers that front every external auditors annual report.

It seems the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley is to insure that the auditors are guaranteeing nothing, other than that they are liable for nothing.

[bobbyhawks]

not the case at all....in the situation I deal with or external auditors overall.  They don't know your business like you do, they are not there so you can wash your hands of any wrongdoing done inside your company.

Of course they don't know your business like you do.  That is pretty much the entire point of an independent audit.  Of course they are not there so you can pin the blame elsewhere.  If they find something, people can go to jail or get fired, including the C-levels, regardless of if they knew anything.  A quality external auditor, acting in compliance with standards of independence and conduct set forth by the AICPA, PCAOB, through IFRS, and through GAAP will provide an accurate reporting of internal financial processes regardless of the type of audit.  They may not catch 100% of the fraudulent activities within a company, but major gaps in revenue should not go unnoticed.

I agree.  Simply read the disclaimers that front every external auditors annual report.

It seems the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley is to insure that the auditors are guaranteeing nothing, other than that they are liable for nothing.

http://www.time.com/time/business/artic ... 92,00.html

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3010167

While firms will do what they can to avoid litigation, those disclaimers do not fully indemnify them from having to appear in court.  CPA firms decide all the time not to go after business or pick up clients because they are too big of a risk for future lawsuit.  The Big Four are in court all the time.  The most critical risk, though, is the damage to reputation one suffers from being the audit firm of record for a major oversight.  Who wants to do business with the guys who couldn't find the oversight in CEO XYZ's firm?  I am not trying to pin this on the auditors, however.  This was still a KU problem, created by KU people, and the responsibility lies there.

[KCPowercat]

my only point...hiding behind 'the auditors didn't catch it' is lame and just plain irresponsible if you ask me.

[NDTeve]

my only point...hiding behind 'the auditors didn't catch it' is lame and just plain irresponsible if you ask me.

don't really recall anyone asking you. 

[bobbyhawks]

This was still a KU problem, created by KU people, and the responsibility lies there.

Sometimes, two people are in the wrong.  I know we like to point fingers, but it is possible both screwed up.  KU's screw up is obviously the much bigger deal here, and there is no hiding from that.

[LenexatoKCMO]

Its not surprising that the auditors or anyone else for that matter didn't find out about the actual KU tix - they were reprinting duplicates of returned tix and selling the duplicates and getting people to give them their comp tix.  There wouldn't have been any paper trail, missing tix, or anything else tangible to find.  About the only way Lew, the auditors, or anyone else would have ever found out about that would be to catch them in the act. 

[bobbyhawks]

Its not surprising that the auditors or anyone else for that matter didn't find out about the actual KU tix - they were reprinting duplicates of returned tix and selling the duplicates and getting people to give them their comp tix.  There wouldn't have been any paper trail, missing tix, or anything else tangible to find.  About the only way Lew, the auditors, or anyone else would have ever found out about that would be to catch them in the act. 

Ah, well strike anything I said that the auditors should have known, and Lew for that matter. 

[KCPowercat]

Separation of Duties fixes that pretty easily

[NDTeve]

If KU gets lost in the shuffle of conference realignment...Lew (in light of recent AD events) doesn't look so great...NO?

[KCPowercat]

Bloom is kinda off the rose already isn't it?  Bullying female reporters is the latest. He is turning into a funkhouser. It's a term. Really funkhousered that one.

[KCMax]

Bloom is kinda off the rose already isn't it?  Bullying female reporters is the latest. He is turning into a funkhouser. It's a term. Really funkhousered that one.

I laughed.

[bobbyhawks]

If KU gets lost in the shuffle of conference realignment...Lew (in light of recent AD events) doesn't look so great...NO?

For KU to be in a different situation, we would have needed to win the division a few times and be considered a more stable football program.  Even if that happened, though, we don't have the population of Mizzou or the history/mad following of Nebraska.  I don't know what Lew could have realistically added to the equation more than an Orange Bowl, a bball National Title, and 3 times as many people at football games.

[AllThingsKC]

KU clears AD Lew Perkins

[kcmetro]

Perkins to resign after next school year.

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2010/jun/ ... school-ye/

[KCMax]

Good day to release bad news.