The number of financial re-statements increased significantly in the past five years -- a period that includes major accounting scandals. But the story runs deeper than the familiar tales of incompetence and fraud.

Accounting complexity has gone up while finance has undergone a gradual transformation into a more strategic function during the past decade, and while cost-cutting has also altered the function’s face.

The audit committee should partially take over. Its goals are to prevent financial reporting errors, to find out why any errors occurred and to oversee correction of the financial statements.

The complete article on the subject can be found in the October 2005 issue of Business Finance Magazine, available on http://www.businessfinancemag.com.