Accounting Snags Push Dresser to Restate - - CFO.com

Some local ties to this one. Dresser is a major employer in the Olean NY area.

Accounting Snags Push Dresser to Restate - - CFO.com:

"Dresser Inc. said it will restate its financial statements for 2001 through 2003 based on a host of accounting errors. In May, the industrial engineering company had warned that it would restate its 2004 annual filing, its 2004 and 2005 quarterly financial statements, and would be evaluating the potential need to restate prior periods.

The accounting errors relate to inventory valuation and derivative transactions under the Financial Accounting Standards Board's FAS 133. Other accounting errors relate to the company's businesses which were sold in November 2005."

While I do not know the root cause of the Dresser restatements, In a at least somewhat related article, CFO.com reports on the causes of accounting restatememts. A quick quote:

"Scott Taub, deputy chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Taub...lays the abundance of problems squarely at the door of simple human bungling....Taub said that 55 percent to 60 percent of the errors triggering recent misstatements were "simple misapplications of [generally accepted accounting principles] or books and records problems."