Mark Betesh bluntly translates transparency into a legal context in KBA's October Newsletter, Sarbanes-Oxley and Control of Corporate Real Estate Leases. "Sarbanes-Oxley imposes criminal liability for inaccurate financial reporting and imposes requirements that companies certify the effectiveness of their internal controls." That's serious business -- both for public companies and for service providers to public companies.

"For corporate real estate managers, Sarbanes-Oxley presents a problem because much of the data they report to management are incomplete and only marginally reliable. This is not a fault of corporate real estate; it is symptomatic of the fact that real estate departments usually only provide acquisition and disposition services and are not responsible for paying the bills or otherwise managing the leases on a day-to-day basis."

Sounds like accurate reporting may require cooperation among corporate departments that might not like getting transparent with each other. So how has Sarbanes-Oxley changed your real estate operations? If you manage a corporate portfolio, do you certify the accuracy of your reports?

--Peter Pike