Section 302: Corporate Responsibility for Financial Reports

This is one of the most important sections of SOX from a compliance standpoint. This section specifies that:

1. The signing officer has reviewed the report
2. To the best of the signing officer’s knowledge, there are no untrue statements of material facts or omissions of material facts, or other misleading statements or omissions.
3. The financial statement and report fairly represent the financial condition of the company.
4. The signing officers are responsible to establishing and maintaining effective internal controls.
5. The officers must disclose to the auditors any fraud or significant deficiencies in internal controls.
6. They must disclose if there have been any changes in internal controls subsequent to their report.