Word: auditable
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Bush came right out of this--the sweetheart loans, dumping the Harken stock before it tanked even though he was on the audit committee. Maybe he can stand up and say it takes one to know one, but he's not going to do that...
Then there is Portugal. The center-right government of Prime Minister José Manuel Durào Barroso, which took office in March, said a new audit determined that instead of a 2001 budget deficit equivalent to 2.6% of gdp, the shortfall came in at a whopping 4.1%. Stability and Growth Pact rules hold that any euro-zone country with a deficit above 3% of gdp could face big financial penalties. Obviously, the idea that the E.U.'s poorest country could be fined - on top of huge spending cutbacks the government must make - has not gone down well among Portugal...
This attitude sets boomers apart from their parents, who have traditionally been content to travel, golf and play a lot of pinochle. The emerging retirement ideal is far more active. The University of Miami Institute for Retired Professionals arranges for anyone over 50 to audit regular university courses or take five-week summer sessions, with such classes as creative writing, literature, drawing, computers and a newly added course on Middle East politics and Islam. "A lot of folks are here every day," the institute's director, Noreen Frye, says of the over-50 set. "Others are active with their church...
WHAT BUSH AND CHENEY DID While BUSH was on Harken Energy's board of directors and a member of its audit committee, the company hid losses by selling a subsidiary to itself. Harken officers bought Aloha Petroleum with a loan from the company. Harken labeled the sale a $7.9 million profit, shrinking its losses to just $3.3 million for the year. The SEC forced the company to restate its losses to $12.6 million...
Even with the improvements of recent years, too many corporate boards of directors still serve as little more than puppets of management. Bush only briefly touched on this in his speech, calling for a majority of each board--and for all members of its audit, nominating and compensation committees--to be "truly independent" and to "ask tough questions." But this should be spelled out further. Independent should mean more than someone who doesn't work for the company; it should exclude anyone who has a consulting gig or supplier deal or who has recently left the company...