Book excerpt: The Public Co. Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, otherwise known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, was enacted in July 2002 after a series of high-profile corp. scandals involving Enron and Worldcom. Section 404(a) of the Act requires management to assess and report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. It also requires that an independent auditor attest to management¿s assessment of the effectiveness of those controls. Efforts to reduce the costs while retaining the effectiveness of compliance resulted in a series of reforms in 2007. This report presents an analysis of data from publicly traded co. collected from a survey of financial exec. of co. with Section 404 experience. Charts. This is a print on demand report.