My Friend Irony Was Just Talking About The SEC

In one of the more ironic stories today, the SEC has just undergone an audit, and has discovered some weaknesses (from the New York Times):

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which enforces the rules requiring companies to have audits of their financial statements and internal controls, said yesterday that an audit of its operations, the first ever, had found some weaknesses.

The commission said that it received a clean audit opinion from the Government Accountability Office, which audits government agencies. But the audit cited three material weaknesses in S.E.C. controls, only one of which the commission hoped to fix in the current fiscal year.

...The three material weaknesses were in the areas of recording and reporting enforcement-related disgorgements and penalties, preparing financial statements, and security for information technology.

Ah well, nobody's perfect. They also this week announced another "boo boo":

The disclosure of material weaknesses was the second embarrassment this week for the commission regarding its financial processes.

On Tuesday, it told a Congressional committee that it had discovered that $48 million related to costs for new offices in Washington, New York and Boston, had not been budgeted. It said at least $23 million of that will be spent in the current fiscal year, presumably through squeezing other expenditures. Officials said they might free some money by delaying hiring.

I guess I won't be getting a job with the SEC this year...