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fe a t u r e a r t i c l e 39

fe a t u r e a r t i c l e

The Sarbanes‐Oxley Act forces top management to certify that financial statements are free of fraud and material misstatement. Just using an independent auditor may not be enough. The authors explain why adding a forensic accountant to an audit team is an advantage—and might have saved the careers of some high‐profile cor‐porate executives. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Managers attitudes toward the budget as an object and toward their role in the budgeting process are influenced by a number of factors. In this study, the ability of two personality traits, locus of control and Machiavellianism, and accounting competence were of interest as explanatory variables. Analysis of the questionnaire responses supported two of the hypothesized relationships among variables. Machiavellianism is inversely related to attitudes toward the budget in that high Machiavellianism tendencies are associated with negative attitudes toward the budget. In addition, accounting competence was significant in explaining variation in attitudes toward the individuals role in the budgeting process. Accounting competence was positively related to the attitudes construct. Locus of control was not found to be significantly related to attitudes towards the budget or a mangers role in the budgetary process.