A Lei Sarbanes-Oxley e seus impactos nos controles internos contábeis: o caso de uma indústria química brasileira

Abstract

This research analyzed the internal accounting controls of a Brazilian chemical industry, and the changes after the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley law. It is a descriptive, qualitative research and unique case study application. The research intented to understand: \"In what extent the Sarbanes-Oxley law has affected the internal accounting controls of the researched company?\". Therefore, the data collection was divided in two steps: the first, presented in the Sox Project database information, and the second described in interviews with the company employees. The interview was based in a script composed of 20 questions, divided in three dimensions / constructs: analysis of the interviewees opinion of the internal control area, before the implementation of Sox; verification of the contributions that Sox brought to the internal controls of the organization, and the identification of significant changes after the implementation of the law. The technique used to extract the data from communications was the content analysis. Moreover, after the data analysis, the conclusion was that before implementing Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the company did not have a structure of internal controls, the processes were not standardized and the organization did not have an effective record of important decisions. In 2014, with the advent of Sox, the control culture underwent a positive change, the proceedings were standardized, the employees were trained in Sox concepts, decisions were recorded in minutes, and an area of internal controls was created. Sox allowed the company to have a different vision of the market, and, in the beginning of 2015, the company received a purchase proposal