Indecent Disclosure: Gilding the Corporate Lily

Indecent Disclosure: Gilding the Corporate Lily captures the concerns of the business community when misleading financial disclosures of a public corporation result in an unexpected corporate collapse. Here, the authors present four main themes underpinning the crisis in a company's financial disclosures: A company's compliance with accounting standards does not generally produce financial statements that disclose their wealth and financial progress; Misleading financial statements are more the result of compliance with accounting rules, with the best of intentions, than a result of deviation from them with the intent to mislead; The raft of knee-jerk corporate governance mechanisms imposed following recent high profile corporate malpractice are more directed at appearances than at rectifying problems; and There is increasing evidence that the current group structures which organise corporate activities are incapable of effective regulation.
Indecent Disclosure explains, explores and illustrates these themes, within the framework of an agenda for true, effective reform.

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Indecent Disclosure captures the anguish the commercial public experiences when the misleading financial disclosures of some public corporations lead to an unexpected collapse. Here, the authors pursue four main themes as underpinning the crisis in companies' financial disclosures. First, companies' compliance with the accounting standards does not produce financial statements that disclose their wealth and financial progress; second, misleading financial statements are more the result of compliance with the accounting rules with the best of intentions, than from the deviation from them with the intent to mislead; third, the raft of knee-jerk corporate governance mechanisms imposed following the recent corporate shenanigans are more directed at appearances than rectifying malpractice; and fourth, there is increasing evidence that the current group structures in which corporate activities are arranged are incapable of effective regulation. Here those themes are explained, explored, and illustrated, within the framework of an agenda for true, effective reform.

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This book presents alternative solutions to the problem of 'unexpected' corporate failures.

Graeme Dean is Professor of Accounting at The University of Sydney.