Another remedy is formal regulation: requiring companies to issue quarterly reports, undergo audits, disclose important news, and so forth.
And even though private businesses do not have to undergo audits, most mid-size firms buy one anyway, because banks rarely lend to unaudited borrowers.
In December, the Saudi government announced it had frozen bank accounts containing $5.5 million, required Saudi charities to undergo audits and created a financial intelligence unit to investigate money laundering.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said, for example, that municipal bond investors were entitled to basics like audited financial statements — something investors in stocks take for granted — but said it could not force municipalities to undergo audits unless Congress gave it that power.
The plan, which the owners said was too costly, called for all buildings of 50,000 square feet or more to undergo audits to determine which renovations would make them more energy efficient, and for owners to then pay for many of those changes.
Two of the factories inside the building had undergone audits overseen by a monitoring group, the Business Social Compliance Initiative, which was created by a European industry group, the Foreign Trade Association.
Secrecy led to some factories that worked for a variety of companies undergoing multiple audits.
Congregations have been introducing environmentalism into Sunday schools, undergoing energy audits of their churches, reducing cars idling and changing the very buildings in which they meet, with window replacements and added insulation.
But the Hannas have also spent the last four years undergoing excruciating audits by the Internal Revenue Service.
It's also undergoing constant audits from the SEC, FINRA and its security team to make sure everything is kosher and locked up tight.
