The ups and downs in the economy during the novel coronavirus pandemic are causing audit committees at public companies to focus on the disclosures in their financial statements and SEC filings about the current and potential impacts of COVID-19, according to a new report from KPMG.
The report, Challenges Presented by COVID-19, found that companies are reassessing, enhancing or establishing new internal controls due to pandemic-related disruptions to their business operations. Meanwhile internal auditors are adjusting their audit plans and activities.
Steve Cover is Chief Technology Officer at iPipeline. In this role, he oversees the technology strategy for the organization and ensures that iPipeline's technological infrastructure supports the company's growth and objectives. In addition, he will focus on the continued differentiation within iPipeline's product portfolio, and improve quality, testing, and delivery.
Bobby Puglia is chief product officer at Bloomberg Industry Group, where he oversees Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Government. Prior to his current role, he served as architect of Bloomberg Law's data platform, leading the strategy and development of its proprietary legal search engine, as well as the machine learning and artificial intelligence research and engineering organizations that support Bloomberg Industry Group's products.
Blaine Frederick is VP of Product at Alcatraz AI, an artificial intelligence company that employs facial authentication technology to create autonomous access control solutions for enterprises. Frederick brings 20+ years of experience in the Physical Security industry with specific expertise in the Biometric space. Frederick currently serves as the VP of Product at Alcatraz AI where he leads the Product and Engineering teams. Prior to his work at Alcatraz AI, he served as Co-Founder and Principal of BDIS which provides Consultation and Professional Services for the physical security market. Previously, Frederick held the role of VP of Product for EyeLock, where he captained the firm's vision for iris authentication products and solutions in physical and logical security as well as numerous other commercial applications. Frederick also acted as the former Director of Product Management at STANLEY Security, a global division of Stanley Black & Decker where he led the creation of an industry-leading security management software suite, Commander. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.
Forecasting has become more challenging, including developing assumptions for the recoverability of goodwill and nonfinancial assets, as well as the realizability of deferred tax assets, making going-concern determinations and figuring other asset impairments more difficult, according to the report.
Nevertheless, audit committees are adapting to the new environment, as their companies allow more flexibility for remote work. Among the biggest areas of concern cited by the 114 U.S. audit committee members polled by the KPMG Audit Committee Institute are disclosures about the current and potential effects of COVID-19 (79 percent), preparation of forward-looking cash flow estimates (48 percent), and impairment of nonfinancial assets such as goodwill and other intangible assets (43 percent).
Audit committee members indicated that the remote work environment accelerated by COVID-19 has so far had little impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of their interactions with the management team and auditors.
Companies are reassessing their internal controls in response to COVID-19-related disruptions to their business operations. The most commonly cited disruptions included return-to-work plans (73 percent), IT system access and authentication for remote workers (69 percent) and cybersecurity (66 percent).
Audit committee members expect some environmental, social and governance issues to get much more attention from boards as a result of COVID-19 and recent protests against systemic racism. Survey respondents cited employee health, safety and well-being (85 percent), diversity within the company including the boardroom (53 percent) and corporate reputation (39 percent) as areas of greater focus for boards.
The pandemic has also caused many audit committees to reassess the scope of their workload agendas in addition to their risk oversight responsibilities. Most audit committee members who responded to the survey cited oversight responsibilities for a variety of COVID-related risks, including financial risks (83 percent), legal and regulatory compliance (70 percent), cybersecurity (62 percent) and data privacy (42 percent).
