This article enquires the internal control system over financial reporting in Italian listed companies. The Authors selected all the firms that received an accounting enforcement action by Consob from 2002 to 2009. For these cases they analyze the audit reports and the board of statutory auditors reports in order to evaluate a congruence with the findings signaled by Consob. The empirical evidence shows some relevant weaknesses which characterize the control activities carried out by the two main actors of the Italian internal control system over financial reporting.
Keywords: Internal control system, financial reporting control, accounting enforcement action, board of statutory auditors, audit firm