Publication Date
4-24-2021
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Cefaratti, Meghann
Degree Name
B.S. (Bachelor of Science)
Legacy Department
Department of Accountancy
Abstract
The Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 states that all publicly traded companies in the United States must have their audit committees establish a system of receiving, retaining, and treating complaints that are submitted by employees, both anonymous and non-anonymous (2002). However, there are no clear guidelines or rules identified for how these complaints must be handled. Because of this, there have been multiple instances of companies that fail to act upon complaints made by employees, leading to fraud going uninvestigated. This paper examines the best practices and possible guidelines that could be established in order to remedy the failure to act upon complaints. I examined past company employee complaint system structures through document analysis, and I also conducted a semi-structured interview of a group of audit committee members and public auditors, in order to better understand complaint systems. The results of my research will show a clear set of guidelines that public businesses should follow in order to have a more effective employee complaint system. These results also have significance for future research on the complaint systems in the public business spaces by providing some “best practices” to test in the future.
Recommended Citation
Rivas, Adam, "How Companies Handle Anonymous Complaints: An in Depth Look at the Guidelines and Regulations for Audit Committees and Businesses" (2021). Honors Capstones. 617.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/studentengagement-honorscapstones/617
Extent
30 pages
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
