Lunch at the Labs

Oaths for Businessmen and Politicians.

Starting August 14, the chief executive and financial officer of the 900 or so largest companies (by sales) must state under oath that their quarterly reports contain no "untrue statement of a material fact" or "omitted to state a material fact" and certify that an independent audit committed reviewed the financial statement. However since they can also add "to the best of my knowledge", I'm not sure how much this will really help. For more details see the SEC Order and the list of companies with their statements as they are submitted.

Also in the news is that some members of a congressional inquiry into the September 11 attacks who had requested that the FBI investigate leaks from the panel are now balking at taking a lie detector test requested by the FBI. This got me to thinking that if CEOs and and CFOs have to vouch under oath for the integrity of their statements, why not have Member of Congress do the same. I am particularly thinking about matters concerning lobbyists and the money they give to politicians. When they vote for a bill, I think each legislator should be required to state under oath the names of any lobbyists with whom they discussed the matters being voted upon.