The main
responsibility of the Security Exchange Commission is to enforce the federal
securities laws and to monitor the stock market. Moreover, besides the Act of
1934, the SEC also enforces several other laws like the Securities Act, the
Investment Advisors Act, the Sarbanes Oxley Act, the Investment Company Act,
and the Trust Indenture Act (SEC, 2008).
According to a
report from 2004, Wal-Mart Inc. has filed of complying with SEC regulations due
to an error in declaring some stock ownership of over ten percent. Wal-Mart has
broken the SEC regulations and did not report such changes on time, until later
in 2004, instead of December 31, 2004. According to the report from Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. (2004, p.22), “the Company believes that all Section 16(a) filing
requirements were met except that late reports were filed by Messrs, Breyer,
Gault, Hernandez, Shewmaker, and Opie with respect to the quarterly director
retainer that these outside directors received in Shares or stock units on
December 31, 2003.”
However, there are obvious attempts from Wal Mart
to comply with SEC regulations and to respect the rights of the shareholders,
employees and the sustainability measures that are required for any business. As
detailed on Wal-Mart’s website in the Corporate Governance-Committee Information
section, the Audit Committee is
responsible for implementing the SEC regulations and insuring that they are
respected. This Committee ensures that all the policies of the company agree
with the federal laws and with the company’s policies, while it offers makes
sure that the level of communication with the investment professionals is kept
at high standards through “one or more
analysts meetings held throughout the year, each of which will be publicly web
cast; periodic pre-recorded conference calls regarding the Company’s financial
results, each of which will be accessible by the public at large; one-on-one
meetings with and presentations to Investment Community Members; provided,
that, any such meetings will be subject to the requirements immediately below;
and an annual shareholders’ meeting that will be publicly web cast (Wal*Mart Inc, 2009, p.
1).
The internal audit department ensures that the
Company meets the SEC regulations. The internal audit ensures that Wal-Mart's all
employees understand and follow the code of conduct. The company's set of
values are in accordance with the SEC regulations and there is a formal
compliance and ethics program that ensures that the values are followed by all
the employees. In addition there is the audit committee charter, the corporate
governance guidelines, policy for audit, audit related services and disclosure
committee charter, which are responsible for complying with SEC regulations.
Respecting the SEC regulations means more than just
the audit and related departments. Basically, it means that all departments and
al employees have to be trained on how to apply the procedures and processes;
they have to know and understand the legal aspects of the business in order to
comply with these regulations. Form a wide perspective, Wal-Mart uses all its
employees to comply with SEC regulations, not only the financial audit and
related departments.
Bibliography
Halme, T. (2008). Wal-Mart
Stores - company Sustainability Analysis . Retrieved June 26, 2009, from
http://www.fiaweb.nl/CenComp/examples/20080826%20Wal-Mart%20Stores%20sustainability_analysis.pdf
SEC. (2008). The Laws That
Govern the Securities Industry. Retrieved June 26, 2009, from
http://www.sec.gov/about/laws.shtml
Wal*Mart Inc. (2009). Investment
Community Communications Policy. Retrieved June 2009, from Search: SEC
Compliance: http://walmartstores.com/download/3492.pdf
Wal*Mart Inc. (2009). Jeffrey
J. Gearhart. Retrieved 2009, from http://walmartstores.com/Investors/8961.aspx?p=7823
Wal*Mart Stores Inc. (2004). Notice
of Annual Shareholders' Meeting. Retrieved June 26, 2009, from
http://walmartstores.com/Media/Investors/proxy_2004.pdf
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