Waste Management Scandal

* Refused to record expenses necessary to write off the costs of unsuccessful and abandoned landfill development projects,

Dean Buntrock established Waste Management, Inc. in 1968. Its main purpose is to pick recycling and garbage up from residential housing and businesses. WM also disposes of the garbage in landfills. It has grown to be the largest garbage disposal company in the U.S. today. This company has managed to survive “one of the most egregious accounting frauds we have seen” said Thomas C. Newkirk of the SEC.

Another corporation that operated unethically was Ford Motor Company with the production of the Ford Pinto. To compete with international competition and achieve Lee’s goal of producing the Pinto within a small time frame led to designing and manufacturing flaws. This resulted in a fuel tank design that would put the Pinto in a combustible situation should rear end accidents penetrate the poorly designed fuel tank. Realizing the design malfunction and deciding how to fix the fuel tank

Municipal solid wastes are leftovers made by the population such as food, plastic bottles, household wares and many more. These items referred by most as “the garage” or “trash”. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2015) In the early 1900’s, incinerators were used to burn waste however by the Mid-20th century, lawmakers enacted the first government regulations in an attempt to address increasing concerns about the environmental impact of unregulated waste management practices. With the first waste management legislation being passed in 1965, brought along the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, thus bringing us into a new world of waste management.(Vault, n.d.)

Since their prices were way too low, eventually profit margins began to decline very fast, this resulted in millions of losses. Instead of disclosing and recording these losses, President Monus along with the CFO Pat Finn and two other high ranking officials, decided to cross out the correct numbers insert highly inflated numbers, during this a sub ledger with the real numbers was also being kept. After a few months of this practice Pat Finn the CFO took on the responsibility of altering the numbers. By mid 1990 Monus's refusal to raise prices led to even more cover ups and eventually more members of the organization began to get involved in the fake reporting including the manager of accounting and the Controller. By the time the fraud was discovered executives at Phar-Mor had misstated financial statements by over $500 million.

Actions are Unethical - Definition of ethical behaviour is broader than just its legality. Organizations have a broader responsibility to its stakeholders which include the surrounding communities and the environment. Government agencies are influenced by industry and do not always prioritize the interests of the public. How can any waste dumping be safe?

The extent and nature of governmental involvement in waste management activities varies by towns in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, with some towns directly managing both collection and disposal of residential as well as commercial solid waste, and others playing virtually no role in either collection or

For WM the fuel, environmental charge included on a customer’s invoice is determined by first putting in the percentage of the WM Collection Fuel Surcharge Table or WM Disposal Fuel Surcharge Table into the overall invoice charges (excluding taxes). Next the environmental percentage is put in the sum of the total invoice charges and fuel surcharge calculation (excluding tax). Landfills produce harmful gases that if breathed in by people can cause serious health issues. The gases they let off also can ignite huge fires. If the water gets contaminated, then there is a long process to get to clean again and it cost 10 million dollars. Landfills also create a toxic soup of industrial and home-cleaning chemicals. These are just some of the impacts that solid waste management has on people and environments. My group has come up with different ways to solve these

Waste Management Inc., hereafter referred to as WMI, was established in 1968by Wayne Huizenga, Dean Buntrock, and Larry Beck. The company provided environmental and waste services in Canada and the United States. By 1990, due to strong growth via operations and acquisitions, WMI grew to become the major waste management company in the region. Unfortunately, actual growth was supported by aggressive accounting policies. However, with the fall of real; growth and profitability, Buntrock and his team started to manipulate financial reports of the company in order to keep its successful appearance (Brook and Dunn, 677).

In 1970, when Americans produced 121 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW), three-quarters went directly into landfills, one-fifth was incinerated, and less

By using the situation of Carrollton, Texas in 2004 as an example we can clearly recognize that solid waste management costs were reduced through privatization. According to Scott (2004) a public sector department called Carrollton Solid Waste Division (CSW) lost a competition bid for solid waste services because the department was not able to convince the committee members they would be able to compete with productivity, experience, and customer service of private sector service providers. Scott (2004) recognized that costs of service were to

The scandal that started the series of accounting scandals is Waste Management Inc. Waste Management Inc. is a publicly traded waste management company that reported 1.7 billion dollars in fake earnings (US Government Accountability Office, 2002). The accounting scandal was discovered in 1998 when a new chief executive officer took a look at the financial statements. The

While Waste Management continued to produce false numbers to the public, Buntrock used company money to make charitable contributions and present himself as a decent, ethical person (Securities and Exchange Commission: 2002). He received large amounts of money while he perpetrated the fraud, and his executive team was incentivized for their role as well.

the firm was widely regarded as one of the most innovative, fastest growing, and best

As the scandals came to light, mistrust of financial reporting in general grew. One article in the Forbes magazine noted that “repeated disclosures about questionable accounting practices have bruised investors’ faith in the reliability of earnings reports, which in turn has sent stock prices tumbling” (Forbes). Imagine trying to carry on a business or invest money if you could not depend on the financial statements to be honestly prepared. Information would have no credibility. There is no doubt that a sound, well-functioning economy depends on accurate and dependable financial reporting. United States regulators and lawmakers were very concerned that the economy would suffer if investors lost confidence in corporate accounting because of unethical financial reporting.