Consulting giant becomes a State House fixture [BG]
The Boston Globe continues to skewer Deloitte since Massachusetts Department of Revenue fired the firm for the lousy job they did implementing a news system for filing tax returns. Of course, the firing only happened after the Green Dot billed them for $54 milion. The Globe found "[Deloitte] has won at least $330 million in consulting and technology contracts in Massachusetts over the past decade. State officials could not name a firm that has won more business. Deloitte is currently working on at least 12 contracts here, accounting for about $215 million of its business with the state." Reporters Beth Healy and Megan Woolhouse are turning over every rock they come across, even the fact that the heads of Mass' unemployment division and the state’s health insurance marketplace are Deloitte alums.
Volcker vote made private due to weather [The Hill]
Somehow the banks had a hand in this: "The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was scheduled to vote on the sweeping regulation on Tuesday, limiting the way that banks are able to make risky bets for their own profits. The rule is a core provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and a major priority for advocates of financial reform. The CFTC announced early Tuesday morning that its meeting would be canceled due to a snow storm that has swept across the Eastern seaboard and closed federal agencies throughout Washington. The commission is still scheduled to vote on the rule behind closed doors, a spokesman said."
Internal Auditors Take on Third Parties [CFO]
I love the irony of a potential third party suggesting that companies need to be wary of third parties: "With companies outsourcing more responsibilities to third parties, the risks associated with outside firms are also increasing. While chief risk officers are often called upon to manage those risks, however, it is internal auditors who are responsible for setting up processes to identify third-party risk factors. While CROs and internal auditors work together, it’s tricky to tease out who actually owns the risk — that is, who has primary responsibility for managing it. 'Ownership of risk should be diverse,' says Rick Warren, a principal with Crowe Horwath and co-author, along with the Institute of Internal Auditors, of 'Closing the Gaps in Third-Party Risk Management,' a study which surveyed 164 chief-audit executives about their role in third-party risk management."
Missouri makes $1.7 billion tax break bid for Boeing [DMWT]
It's hard to compete with Washington state's $8.7 billion, but this'll do.
G.M. Names First Female Chief Executive [NYT]
Now that GM is finished being a ward of the state, they've decided to get up to speed in other ways: "General Motors said Tuesday it has named Mary T. Barra, the automaker’s head of product development, as its next chief executive, succeeding Dan Akerson, who will step down in January. She would be the first female C.E.O. of a major automaker."
Snooping in SEC examiner's briefcase, Madoff hid fraud -ex-aide [Reuters]
The stories that come out of this fraud never get old: "When a pair of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission examiners visited Bernard Madoff's offices in 2005, the now-imprisoned financier was not too worried – until he sneaked a look into one of their briefcases. What Madoff found – a news article questioning how he produced positive returns every year – sent him into a rage, according to courtroom testimony on Monday by his decades-long right hand man Frank DiPascali. 'These SOBs are toying with me,' DiPascali quoted Madoff as saying."
TSA agent confiscates sock monkey's pistol [King5]
TSA agents have a thankless job already and this doesn't help matters: "Phyllis May of Redmond, Wash. says she is 'appalled and shocked and embarrassed all at the same time' about the incident that happened on Dec. 3. May has a small business selling unique sock monkey dolls. She says she and her husband were on their way from St. Louis to Sea-Tac and she had a couple of monkeys and sewing supplies with her in a carry-on bag. 'His pistol was in there,' she says of the sock monkey 'Rooster Monkburn,' a take-off on John Wayne character 'Rooster Cogburn' from the film 'True Grit.' "
