Our Products and Services Include:
Sarbanes Oxley Documentation and Testing
In response to the spate of corporate scandals and failures such as Enron, Tyco and Adelphia, the enactment of the Sarbanes - Oxley Act of July 2002 has placed a burden on US corporations not only to have a robust system of internal and disclosure controls but also to be able to demonstrate that those systems are adequate.
The costs being incurred by many companies in complying with this legislation are very high. We have worked with multi billion dollar companies, helping them optimize their control environment, identifying key controls, designing tests of these key controls and executing the tests. The process that we employ has enabled companies to realise cost savings of over 50% compared to previous years, savings amounting to millions of dollars. We also have a technique specifically designed for small cap companies, which would enable such companies with reasonable expenditure, to be compliant with Sarbanes Oxley.
Sepia Associates will bring to your organization our extensive international experience in this field. We can help you, both large and small cap companies, evaluate and reengineer your internal control environment to meet the onerous requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Fraud Detection and Investigation
It is a fact that fraud exists in all corporations big and small. According to a 2002/2004 report of the American Association of Fraud Examiners fraud and abuse costs U.S. organizations more than $600 billion annually or almost $4,500 per employee. Over half of the frauds are in excess of $100,000 and one in six exceeds $1 million. Smaller organizations with less than 100 employees are significantly more vulnerable. The average scheme in small businesses causes $127,500 in losses. The average scheme in the largest companies costs $97,000.
Sepia Associates have developed proven routines that could help you detect and reduce fraud in your organizations, be it fraud by employees or fraud by suppliers.
Duplicate Payments Detection and Recovery
Despite internal control procedures to detect duplicate payments, it is a proven fact that corporations pay out millions of dollars in duplicate payments, dollars that go straight to the bottom line undetected. Many businesses have thus thrived, specializing in the recovery of duplicate payments on a contingency basis.
Sepia Associates distinguishes themselves from others by not only identifying and going after these duplicate payments on the same contingency basis, but by also giving you the added bonus of applying our fraud detection routines to your accounts payable files thereby helping you identify and eliminate fraud.
We also use our vast internal control experience to recommend changes to your procedures in the accounts payable area for no additional fees.
Internal Audit
Whether you are looking to supplement, improve or completely outsource your internal audit function, we can help. Our experience in this area is broad and extensive, including development of risk based approaches to internal audit, evaluating the effectiveness of internal audit functions or working with Internal Audit Management to improve the department's overall impact on the organization.
Ethics Workshops
Ethics is closely linked to any fraud prevention and detection program. We can help you implement an ethics program, conduct workshops designed to improve the ethical environment in your organization, and provide guidance to employees on issues they may face in the workplace. We tailor our ethics workshops to your organizational needs, including case studies that are pertinent to you. These workshops can be conducted at your facilities or off site and may last from a half day to a full day. We also use our vast internal control experience to recommend changes to your procedures in the accounts payable area for no additional fees.
