The study by New York-based market research and strategic solutions provider Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas -- "The Financial Officers View: The Enron/Andersen Fallout" -- interviewed by telephone a random sample of 100 senior financial executives at Fortune 1000 companies from Feb. 5-8, in the aftermath of the Enron debacle.

Overall, senior executives are divided over whether the auditing problems associated with the Enron bankruptcy are "limited to Enron." Only half say the auditing problems are limited to Enron, while four in 10 say the problems are "more widespread."

The survey also found that the Enron bankruptcy has badly damaged the credibility of the accounting industry in general and Arthur Andersen in particular, in the eyes of these senior executives. Half said their companies would not consider using Arthur Andersen in the future, and 39 percent said they are now reviewing their own relationship with their accounting firm as result of the Enron controversy.

Despite a former SEC chairman's recommendation that there be a limit on the number of years that a firm may audit a corporation, the majority (72 percent) of executives surveyed disagreed with this solution. In addition, most rejected the need for new government regulations over accounting firms. Rather, most feel the government needs to better enforce existing regulations. A minority (37%), however, did feel there was a need to create new government regulations.

Fifty-nine percent said they would prohibit accounting firms from providing auditing services to their accounting clients, while 35 percent feel accounting firms should be able to provide both of these services. 

Executives are divided over whether the special purpose entities or partnerships created by Enron to keep debt off the company's books should be made illegal. Over one-half (51%) say these special purpose entities should not be made illegal, 36 percent say they should be made illegal, and the remaining 13 percent were unsure whether to make these special purpose entities illegal or not.

A complete set of interview questions can be found at http://www.srbi.com/.

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