**5.1 USA**

In the United States, the corporate governance concept gained prominence after the landmark scandal of Watergate. As a result, the regulatory and legislative bodies constituted various committees to undertake a forensic audit to find the reasons for the failures leading to creating a Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in 1977. Later the act supported the formation of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Act contains specific provisions regarding establishing, maintaining, and reviewing internal control systems.

After a subsequent investigation, US regulatory and legislative bodies found out failures that had allowed corporations to make political contributions, legal and bribing officials. Later, the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC), 1970 came into force mandatory internal financial controls for all the listed

<sup>3</sup> https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index/nzl

corporates in the USA. The Tradeway Report highlighted the need for proper environmental controls, functions, and an effective audit committee. The two major scandals Worldcom and Enron, have raised questions on transparency, the role of boards, and their performance. The result was an enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOXA), 2002. Since then, greater autonomy was given to SEC.
