Foley’s fifth annual study on the costs associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley act, revealed that while internal costs have gone down, other out-of-pocket costs such as audit fees, board compensation and legal fees have risen over the past year and on average external audit fees have increased 271 percent between fiscal years 2001 and 2006 for companies with under $1 billion in revenue. Paul Broude, a partner in Foley’s Boston office, was quoted about the study results in the article “Study: Sarbanes-Related Costs Remain on the Rise,” which appeared in the August 10th issue of Boston Business Journal. Regarding findings of the study, Broude stated “Survey respondents still see SOX as too restrictive and think there ought to be more risk-based audit tests. People feel it’s become an exercise to go through. Everyone understands it, but the question is, once you standardize everything, is it really creating the value people are looking for?”
