Boston, MA 09/19/2014 (wallstreetpr) – While over 1300 companies listed on the U.S. stock exchanges filed reports regarding rooting out of conflict-minerals from supply chain, only four had the guts to come forward and go for an audit. Only Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), KEMET Corporation (NYSE:KEM), Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) and Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE:SIG) undertook external audit, as revealed by Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, a law firm.
Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and the Conflict Minerals
The conflict minerals in the U.S. include tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold. These are the natural minerals which are extracted from the conflict zone and are most often, sold for spreading fighting. Often, the conflict minerals are bought by MNCs after being passed by a lot of intermediaries because they are used for manufacturing of a range of devices including MP3 players, laptops and mobile phones.
According to the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, the companies were mandated to reveal about their efforts to find out the suppliers who could make use of these minerals for funding Congo-based armed militia groups. The revelations had to be done by June 2, 2014. As per the rule, the companies were supposed to go for auditing of their investigations in case they were labelling their products as DRC Conflict Free.
The Schulte Roth attorney specializing in compliances of conflict minerals, Michael Littenberg said that most of the companies were considering the external auditing process very seriously, but they were yet in the infancy stage.
Intel’s External Audit
The external audit of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s investigation was done by Ernst & Young LLP, which examined the supply chain of the company. The VP of Intel’s legal corporate affairs, Cary Klafter, in this regard said that this was their learning process. He added that various firms did not even have proper data during the first year.
He said that auditing, which took around two months, was learning and new experience for him and the auditors of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) as well.
