Effective July 30, 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) – also known as the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act“ – set strict requirements on the standards for external auditors and their evaluation of internal controls and financial reporting as they related to companies that are publicly traded on the United States stock exchange. According to the Act, a public company is required to hire an external audit team to review their financial statements and accounting procedures. Although an internal auditor checks a company’s internal control systems and business processes, an external auditor checks the financial statement of the company. This relieves any conflict of interest from any internal audit that might offer a
