Misconceptions About Internal Control

Various literatures suggest that there is a variety in which internal control is understood, in the same manner that there are countless ways it is seen to be working across many organizations.

No less than the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the business control regulating body created under the US Securities and Exchange Commission through the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, has acknowledged “there has been confusion over the exact meaning of the term “internal control,” because the definition of the term has evolved through time. Historically, the term “internal control” was applied almost exclusively within the accounting profession”

Good governance is anchored on sound internal controls but internal control concepts per se are complicated and hard to discern even among practitioners and beneficiaries.