Sarbanes-Oxley Impacts Hit Home
People often tell me that they never
have to worry about Sarbanes-Oxley directly impacting them. I often liked
to think the same thing. Well, today I got hit. For those of you that do
not know, I do freelance production work for CBS
Sports, ESPN
and Jefferson-Pilot
Sports. Today, I got this letter
from Jimmy Rayburn,
the Executive Producer of JP Sports:
"As you know, Jefferson Pilot Sports is a subsidiary of Jefferson
Pilot Corporation, one the nation’s largest shareholder-owned life insurance
companies. Over the past year, JP has come under increasingly more
stringent accounting rules and guidelines, as have all publicly owned companies.
Due to this we have had to put in place some new accounting and administrative
procedures. Compliance
with these new procedures will ensure that you receive payment on your
invoice in a timely manner. Failure to comply will increase the time
it takes to process and pay your invoice."
"1. You will be required to sign-in and sign-out on all JP Sports
produced events including Carolina Hurricanes Hockey. The sheet will be
maintained by the AD or Technical Manager.
2. You will be required to use the invoice provided by JP Sports. Forms
are attached, will be available on the truck or can be e-mailed to you
in an Excel or PDF format.
3. You will be required to have the job number/work order number, event
name and event date on your invoice. The job number will be posted on the
side of the truck at each game.
4. Invoices must be submitted within two weeks of the event – only one
event per invoice, please."
Having been doing TV Work for going on 24 years, this is the strongest
set of payroll controls I have seen outside og CBS and NBC. In fact, many
years ago, Broadcast Associates for CBS used to show up at events with
a pile of blanck checks, with not a lot of control how they were paid out.
That has changed since they moved us all to 'employee status'.
It does put more of a burden on me, but not enough to be considered a hassle.
But this goes to show, compliance is everywhere.