Problems and difficulties in internal control of some enterprises

Problems and difficulties in internal control of some enterprises

Problems and difficulties in enterprise internal control;

With the development of economy, in order to meet the needs of enterprise management, establishing internal control system and ensuring its effective operation is an important content of modern enterprise management. This paper first discusses the reasons for the formation of internal control, then points out and analyzes the common problems in concrete implementation from the reality of enterprises, and finally puts forward beneficial and guiding suggestions and measures.

1. The formation process and function of enterprise internal control system

With the internationalization of capital market and the development of economic globalization, a large number of multinational companies have emerged, and internal control has been paid more and more attention by enterprise development. 1988, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants first put forward the concept of "internal control structure" in its Statement of Auditing Standards, and then in September 1992, the COSO Committee of the United States issued the Internal Control Report-Comprehensive Framework. The concrete implementation of internal control is comprehensively expounded. On May 22nd, 2008, China also issued the Basic Standards for Enterprise Internal Control, and on April 30th, 2065, it issued the Supporting Guidelines for Internal Control, which provided a normative document basis for the design and operation of enterprise internal control system in China.

The effective implementation of the internal control system can reasonably ensure the compliance and legality of the enterprise's operation, ensure the safety of assets, make the financial report accurate and complete, and control the potential risks caused by the defects of the internal system within an acceptable range, which is of great significance to the realization of the enterprise's development strategy.

2. Enterprise internal control implementation status and reasons analysis

The internal governance structure of some enterprises is not perfect, and there is a phenomenon of "one share dominates", and power and financial resources are too concentrated. Especially in some private enterprises, the chairman of the board is the boss. It is difficult to change their wishes for their proposals, and it is easy to make control a mere formality, which is not conducive to the healthy development of enterprises. Especially for some major decision-making mistakes, it is easy to cause enterprises to fall into financial crisis caused by blind expansion and difficult capital turnover. In recent years, many private enterprises have failed because of blind expansion, such as Chengdu Dikang Group and Hunan Taizi Milk Company. The reason is closely related to the lack of good internal governance structure and the mistakes in expansion decision-making.

Although many enterprises can formulate a complete management system according to the regulations, there is no effective supervision over the implementation of the system. The management of enterprises often considers the cost factor more. For example, in order to save labor costs and improve work efficiency, employees are often encouraged to hold several jobs, which leads to unclear responsibilities of department personnel, which violates the scientific and effective division of responsibilities and the checks and balances mechanism of incompatible positions required by internal control, and lays a curse for future internal fraud. The typical case is that the accountant is a cashier and the buyer is a warehouse keeper, so it is easy to take advantage of his position and exploit the loopholes in management to implement fraud.

Improper implementation of enterprise human resources policies and measures: 1) The implementation of internal control system depends on reasonable human resources. Unstable staff, frequent turnover and imperfect handover system will all affect the continuous implementation of internal control. 2) There is no system of regular post change and compulsory leave for key positions, or there is a system that has not been implemented, and problems are only found when work changes or work handover, causing great losses to the enterprise. Such cases occur from time to time; 3) The Human Resources Department does not attach importance to employee training. Due to the differences in the cultural level of employees within the enterprise, there will be different understandings of the system, or insufficient understanding. In practical work, they are not clear about their responsibilities and obligations, and the implementation effect will deviate from the requirements of enterprises;

The business resources of an enterprise are concentrated in the hands of a few salespeople, which contains huge business risks. Because salesmen control customer resources, the company relies on them to carry out business. Once they leave their jobs or have an accident, the enterprise will lose customer resources and it will be difficult for the business to continue. In practical work, such business people will be proud of themselves and even arrogant. Business assessment system and credit management system have limited binding force on it, which seriously affects the effective implementation of management system.

The business of some enterprises is too scattered, which relaxes the investigation of customer credit background and increases the risk of collection. For example, in the passenger transport industry, if the business risk management control is not good, the customer groups they face may be individuals or small units, with a large number, and generally the business model of service first and then payment. If the customer defaults, the enterprise will be in a passive situation;

The internal audit and routine inspection of the competent department are a mere formality, and the supervision is weak. It is common that the person in charge of the audit is a financial officer. Without the independence of audit work, it is impossible to find major control defects or implement substantive control activities, which will lead to losses for the company. On June 5438+ 10, 2005, Shanghai Huijiao Network Technology Co., Ltd., a listed company controlled by Shanxi Coking Company, disappeared for half a year. The parent company knew that Shanxi Coking Company failed to effectively control the holding company for half a year, which eventually brought losses to the company, which undoubtedly sounded the alarm for us to strengthen the supervision of branches.

3. Talking about the problems and solutions of enterprise internal control

An important content to improve the corporate governance structure is authorization management, hierarchical authorization and approval step by step. For example, a simple office procurement business needs to be priced by procurement personnel, and the procurement should take into account both price and quality. The purchase application should be submitted to the purchasing supervisor and the financial supervisor for review, and finally submitted to the management for approval to determine a purchase project. Simple procurement business should also follow standardized process management. If everything is signed by the leader, it exposes the defects of the company's internal control process. For the decision-making of major issues, the examination and approval procedures should be more stringent, and repeated research, scientific argumentation, collective decision-making and joint signing system are needed, and opinions from various parties should be integrated, pros and cons should be weighed, and decisions should be made carefully.

Enterprise management should attach importance to the establishment of organizational structure, clarify the responsibilities and powers of departmental posts, embody the principle of separation of incompatible posts, and form a working mechanism in which all functional departments perform their duties, restrict each other and coordinate with each other to prevent and resolve all kinds of fraud risks. Therefore, paying too much attention to cost factors or short-term benefits may "lose too much because of small things", which is not conducive to the long-term development of the company; In addition, internal management should start small and pay more attention to the details of each business link. Many major issues often ignore some details and basic work, such as the passenger transport industry. The driver's working hours seem to be a minor problem, but fatigue driving may lead to major traffic accidents; For another example, a fire broke out in a teacher's apartment in Shanghai on June 5438+00+0 15, causing many casualties. After investigation, the specific construction operators involved in the accident didn't even have a job license;

The human resources department should establish a "people-oriented" employment concept, formulate a scientific and reasonable performance evaluation system, create a fair and just career development platform, and build a harmonious humanistic development environment: help employees establish a correct outlook on life and values, improve their professional quality, and increase their cohesiveness, sense of mission and sense of accomplishment. Practice has proved that if employees have good quality, credit and sense of justice, even if some control measures are wrong, they will not necessarily cause losses or affect the reputation of enterprises; Human resources departments need to adopt easy-to-understand expressions through training. , so that every employee can clearly understand their responsibilities and obligations in the implementation of internal control, because the quality of employees may be uneven, and some may have a low level of education, so it is necessary to use tables, flowcharts and so on to explain the content of internal control system. Conduct regular performance appraisal to motivate employees, and stipulate employee rotation, post change system and work handover system. Through the implementation of the above system, on the one hand, it can improve the comprehensive business ability of employees, on the other hand, it can also play a certain preventive role against internal corruption and fraud.

4. Enterprises should strengthen business process management: gradually establish customer data files, establish a customer asset management system, and gradually control the development of the company's core business. At the same time, by improving the customer structure and strengthening business development, we will guide enterprises to develop into large customer groups with concentrated business and good reputation, and reduce the risk of debt collection; Give full play to the function of financial supervision, the focus of financial supervision is the management of financial accounting system, and then implement it in all business links, in which the principles of money, account and material management are the focus of supervision; Set up an internal control management team to regularly check the implementation of the system, correct the deviation in time, regularly review and improve the business processes of all links of the enterprise, and update the corresponding management system in time according to the changed business situation;

Implement the system of reporting and complaining within enterprises, let the development of enterprises accept the supervision of the masses, and improve the internal supervision mechanism. 20 1 1 April, the petroleum division of China Petrochemical Company received a report from the masses complaining that the head of Sinopec Guangdong Branch squandered public funds to consume "sky-high-priced liquor", involving an amount of 6,543,800 yuan. After the incident was exposed, Sinopec departments at all levels attached great importance to it, and set up an investigation team to collect evidence, confirm the facts, and dismiss the parties and compensate the losses according to the company's regulations. This incident shows that Sinopec has good internal control and management.

Give full play to the supervisory role of internal audit: internal audit should be implemented under the direct leadership of the board of directors, separated from financial personnel, and form a capable audit team to carry out the work, maintain the independence and authority of audit, and objectively and fairly evaluate the design and operation of the internal control system of the supervised enterprise. In order to promote the internal audit work more effectively, the internal audit accountability system can be stipulated.

Globalization and diversification are the main business models of modern enterprise development. The implementation of internal control management in China started late, and there are still many gaps compared with enterprises in developed countries. The management system itself also needs a process of gradual improvement. Therefore, every enterprise should establish a global development strategy, vigorously develop its business, actively improve and innovate its internal control system, and achieve international integration as soon as possible.

Problems and difficulties in enterprise internal control II:

Internal control is to form a series of methods, measures and procedures with control functions, standardize and systematize them, and make them a strict and relatively complete system. Since the Enron incident in the United States, the internal control system of enterprises has been mentioned in an important position, especially when the modern management level of enterprises in China is not high. ?

Since the Enron incident in the United States, the internal control system of enterprises has been mentioned in an important position, especially when the modern management level of enterprises in China is not high.

First, what is the internal control system

Internal control is to form a series of methods, measures and procedures with control functions, standardize and systematize them, and make them a strict and relatively complete system. Internal control can be divided into accounting control and management control according to its different control purposes.

Second, the internal control problems

1. The influence of management philosophy on internal control. Whether the management is willing to establish proper control, whether it can abide by the established control, and its attitude and handling behavior towards the implementation effect of the control system have great influence on the implementation of the internal control system. At present, some enterprise managers abuse their power, go beyond control and ignore the established or implemented internal control, making the established internal control useless. The establishment of internal control system is to limit the rights of individuals within the corresponding scope, which will inevitably affect the vested interests of a few people. Some managers just take advantage of the lack of internal control and management confusion. On the other hand, the practice of "one pen" examination and approval in some units does not conform to the principles and requirements of internal control and should be reformed. Practice has proved that rights should be restricted, and unrestricted rights can easily lead to corruption.

2. Poor enterprise risk awareness. In this respect, the greater the ownership, the more serious the property right problem and the worse the risk awareness. There are few venture capital investments in the history of enterprises in China, because for a long time, the property rights of enterprises are unclear, all enterprises are state-owned, and the losses are rotten in the pot. No one cares about risk and has not cultivated the awareness of risk prevention. After the reform and opening up, especially after the establishment of the socialist market economic system, the property right reform has been deepened, but in the process of property right reform, the risk consciousness has not been implemented in enterprise management, and even the risk problems in property right reform have appeared.

3. The corporate governance structure is unreasonable. At present, the corporate governance structure of most enterprises in China is not satisfactory, and most of the articles of association copy the Company Law, which is a mere formality and lacks practical guiding significance. The board of directors, the board of supervisors and the management are "three teams and one team", and the division of responsibilities and rights is ineffective. In addition, in the existing companies, the company's long-term development strategy is formulated by the management, and the board of directors is only responsible for examination and approval. In fact, the executor of the policy has become a legislator, and the rights of the company's board of directors are largely in the hands of insiders. The existing operating mechanism of the company determines that the internal control system is difficult to achieve the expected goal.

4. The direction of internal control system construction is lost. In the process of establishing the internal control system, we didn't understand that the real purpose of internal control is to prevent risks, to achieve business policies and objectives, to protect the safety and integrity of assets, and to ensure the authenticity and integrity of financial accounting information. In some units, the construction of internal control does not start with the risk assessment of process reengineering and necessary system revision, but forms a process after writing a habitual working procedure. Whether this process can control risks and achieve management objectives has not been seriously considered. Some enterprises have only formulated internal control procedures in form, but have not strictly implemented them in actual work, and have not built internal control from the essence of internal control; The formal process of some enterprises is not standardized, the phenomenon of surprise inspection is still serious, and the purpose of internal control has been completely lost.

This organization is not perfect. Organizational guarantee is the premise of internal control. However, from the current situation, most enterprises have set up internal control offices in the financial department. In fact, there are no real staff and no top-down organizational system. Because a formal organization is located in the financial department, other departments have intentionally or unintentionally pushed the responsibility to the financial department, but in the process of internal control construction, the financial department cannot be familiar with all the risk points of the company, and it must be completed together with the actual work undertaker. In addition, there is a lack of supervision over the establishment and implementation of the process. Some units have not carefully studied and determined where the risk points of unit operation are, and they cannot be implemented in specific positions, and the internal control work has not formed a complete closed loop.

Third, the establishment of a good internal control system countermeasures

1. Create a good internal control environment.

Control environment refers to various factors affecting the formulation or implementation of a policy, which mainly reflects the attitude, understanding and action of unit managers and other personnel to control. Any system should adapt to a specific environment. To establish an effective internal control system, we must cultivate fertile soil suitable for the survival of the system, cultivate a healthy and progressive corporate culture suitable for the actual situation of enterprises, and pay special attention to internal control.

2. Conduct risk assessment

There are many elements in the control environment, but considering the principle of cost-effectiveness, not all elements have control value. Therefore, it is necessary to reasonably evaluate the risk degree of those factors that will affect the realization of relevant control objectives, and control those controllable factors with high risk level according to the following process: working objectives → finding risk points → risk control measures. Taking the work target as the starting point of risk assessment, find out the key control points in the control environment that may lead to the failure to achieve the work target as scheduled. Through the evaluation of its risk degree, scientific risk control measures are taken to control it actively and effectively to ensure the realization of its work objectives.

3. Establish an effective accounting system and management system? Establishing an effective accounting system and implementing accounting control are the keys to the internal control system. To establish an effective accounting system, we must follow the following principles: the principle of legality. Acting in accordance with the law is the primary criterion of accounting work and the primary principle of formulating the internal control system of the unit. Although accounting laws and regulations give each unit certain autonomy in financial management and accounting methods, if the above autonomy exceeds the scope and boundaries allowed by accounting laws and regulations and has a negative impact on economic management activities, it is not allowed by accounting laws and regulations. The principle of adaptability. Adaptability is the life of the system. The system must fully reflect the actual situation of the unit, and should not mechanically copy the management methods and models of books or other units, but should be linked with other management systems of the unit. The internal accounting management system can only be the further induction and concretization of the financial department in the unit system, and can not be divorced from the actual situation of the unit, so the internal accounting management system must adapt to the requirements of internal management and play a role.

4. Do a good job in organizational planning

According to the requirements of internal control, in the process of determining and improving the organizational structure, each unit should follow the principle of separation of incompatible posts. The so-called incompatible posts refer to those posts that are likely to be faked if they are held by a person or a department, and can cover up their own fraud. The economic activities of a unit can usually be divided into five steps: authorization, issuance, approval, implementation and recording. Under normal circumstances, if each of the above steps is carried out by relatively independent personnel (or departments), it can ensure the separation of incompatible duties and is conducive to the play of internal control.

5. Strengthen the supervision and review of internal control to ensure the effective implementation of the system.

Supervision and inspection refers to the management supervision of internal control by the management department and the re-supervision and re-evaluation of internal control by the internal audit supervision department. In order to ensure the effective implementation of the internal control system, and the implementation effect is good, it is necessary to properly supervise the internal control process. Supervision and evaluation can be continuous, separate or combined. It mainly focuses on the rationality of supervision and evaluation procedures, the report of internal control defects and the adjustment of policy procedures. Supervision and evaluation activities and defect correction should follow the following principles.

Problems and difficulties in enterprise internal control work III:

At present, the biggest problem in the management of private enterprises is "paternalistic management", which is mainly manifested in "family" and "kinship", and centralized leadership and autocratic decision-making are implemented. Most private enterprises lack perfect internal control systems, such as internal audit system, quota management system, financial budget system and property inspection system. , resulting in serious loss and waste of assets and chaotic management.

First, there are problems in the internal control system of private small and micro enterprises.

(a) the human dimension

At present, the internal control system of private small and micro enterprises in China cannot function normally. In addition to the small scale of enterprises, it is difficult to establish the corresponding control system. The most fundamental reason is the low quality of enterprise managers and weak sense of supervision. It can be said that to make the internal control system work normally, we must first solve the problem of managers.

(2) Financial aspects

Imperfect internal control system has led to some problems, which are manifested in the following aspects: First, lax fund management has led to idle or insufficient funds. In fixed assets management, the book value is seriously inconsistent with the actual situation. Some enterprises even think that the more cash, the better, resulting in idle funds, some funds can not participate in normal business flows; Second, the turnover of accounts receivable is slow, and it is difficult to recover funds until bad debts and bad debts are caused; Third, the backward cost control level has affected the market competitiveness of enterprise products. In order to save costs and reduce financial personnel, some enterprises hand over the work that should have been done by finance, accounting and cashier to one person, which will inevitably lead to the phenomenon that financial management is out of control.

(3) Physical aspects

In the management of things, the biggest problem is the inconsistency between accounts and facts. According to the national accounting system, the accounting records of physical assets such as inventory, currency, fixed assets and bonds must be consistent with the physical assets. However, private small and micro enterprises generally have inconsistent accounts, some have accounts without accounts, some have things without accounts, and some have inconsistent accounts, which can easily lead to property losses.

(4) production

The production capacity of enterprises has not been fully exerted. In the private small and micro enterprises we investigated, the situation of repeated construction is more serious, resulting in some enterprises being underemployed or semi-discontinued. There is also a backlog of products in some enterprises. The main reasons for the backlog are that the products have no market, low technical content, poor quality and lack of market competitiveness.

(5) supply.

Due to poor information and relatively backward procurement mode, when the market demand changes, enterprises can't change the procurement contracts they have provided to suppliers, and the ability of enterprises to respond to users' needs is slow, so it is inevitable that the products they produce can't be marketable.

(6) sales.

The inaccurate and untimely grasp of market information, let alone the analysis of market information, leads to the blindness of decision-making, the products can not be marketable, resulting in backlog and losses. Market information management is out of control, which leads to another problem that the next production is unsustainable.

Fourthly, the internal control system of private small and micro enterprises suitable for China's national conditions should be established.

(A) the establishment of internal control system

Due to the reasons of private enterprises themselves and the influence of the general environment, such as ideas, policies, financing, culture, etc. Private enterprises in China, especially small and micro private enterprises, have not really established an internal control system, and most of them have internal containment systems, that's all. Therefore, it is a long way to go to establish the internal control system of private enterprises and finally make it a system.

According to Article 2 of the Basic Code for Internal Control of Enterprises, small enterprises and other units can establish and implement internal control with reference to this code. The elements of internal control include five aspects: internal environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and internal supervision. Internal environment is the basis of implementing internal control, which usually includes corporate governance structure, internal organization setting and power and responsibility distribution, internal audit mechanism, enterprise human resources policy, enterprise culture and so on. A harmonious internal environment can shape corporate culture, affect employees' sense of control, and ultimately affect the realization of corporate management goals. Risk assessment is an important link for enterprises to identify and analyze the risks related to the realization of control objectives in business activities in time and determine the risk response strategies. Common risk coping strategies include risk avoidance, risk reduction, risk sharing and risk tolerance. The control activity is that the enterprise adopts corresponding control procedures according to the risk assessment results to control the risk within the tolerable range. Control measures include incompatible job separation control, authorization approval control, accounting system control, property protection control, budget control, business analysis control and performance evaluation control. Information and communication is an important condition for enterprises to collect and transmit information related to internal control in time and accurately, and to ensure effective information communication within enterprises and between enterprises and the outside. The main link of information and communication is to confirm, measure and record effective brokerage business; Appropriate disclosure of financial status, operating results and cash flow in financial reports; Ensure the smooth flow of information. Internal supervision means that enterprises supervise and inspect the establishment and implementation of internal control, evaluate the effectiveness of internal control and improve the defects found in time. Internal supervision includes daily supervision and special supervision.

(B) the implementation of internal control system

Whether the internal control system can be effective is the key, so we must attach importance to and strive to improve the execution of the internal control system in enterprises. First of all, by changing ideas and putting internal control institutions and personnel in place, the internal control system is directly implemented. Give moral encouragement and material rewards to institutions and personnel who strictly implement the internal control system, and resolutely give administrative sanctions and economic penalties to those who violate the rules and regulations, and link them with job promotion and demotion. Secondly, to strengthen the assessment of policy execution, enterprises should incorporate institutional execution into the internal performance appraisal system. Third, although internal control is mainly completed by various management departments of enterprises, the promotion of social intermediary institutions and the supervision of government departments are also indispensable. Article 9 of "Basic Standards for Internal Control of Enterprises" stipulates: "The relevant departments of the State Council can clearly implement the specific requirements of this standard according to laws and regulations, basic standards and supporting measures, and supervise and inspect the establishment and implementation of internal control of enterprises".

(C) Evaluation of internal control system

According to Article 46 of the Basic Standards for Internal Control of Enterprises, "an enterprise shall wake up regularly to evaluate the effectiveness of its internal control system in combination with internal supervision and issue a self-evaluation report on internal control". Evaluating the internal control system can ensure the normal operation of the internal control system, ensure the compliance and legality of various activities, and provide information services and decision support for enterprise risk management.

According to Article 5 of the Guidelines for Evaluation of Internal Control of Enterprises (Draft for Comment), enterprises should follow the principles of comprehensiveness, importance and objectivity, and carry out evaluation around five aspects: internal environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and internal supervision. According to the evaluation and analysis, it is found that the defects of internal control are design defects or operation defects, and the severity of the defects, so as to find out the best scheme to improve internal control.

(D) improve the internal control system

To improve the internal control system of small and micro enterprises, we must first standardize the corporate governance structure. From the owner's point of view, not only should the process of top managers exercising power be included in the monitoring scope of internal control, but it should also be regarded as the key monitoring object of internal control.

We believe that from the current reality of enterprise management, in addition to strengthening internal constraints and external supervision, there are two aspects that need attention. First, strengthen the research on legislation and legal responsibility, and resolutely investigate and deal with violations of laws and regulations; The second is to attach importance to the role of the government in promoting the establishment of internal control in enterprises, because private enterprises, especially small and micro enterprises, do not understand the national laws and policies in place and should follow the trend. Specifically, it should include helping and guiding enterprises to standardize the responsibilities and authorities of various departments and posts and implement post responsibilities; Pay attention to the important position of human resources in enterprise internal control; Give full play to the important role of internal audit in enterprise internal control.