GOVERNANCE RULES TOUCH INDUSTRY

At least two design firm CEOs reassured employees that the corporate ills that generated the recent landmark corporate governance and anti-fraud legislation do not happen in construction. Executives and experts downplayed the impact on an industry as conservative and steady as construction. One key area of interest is a possible new rule requiring companies to expand disclosure of critical estimates, but its full effect will not be known until SEC defines the term, says one contractor's CFO. A few contractors say they are worried about an SEC proposal to cut a month from the time companies now are allowed to submit annual and quarterly reports. Because large contractors gather information from so many different projects and people, hurrying the estimates may introduce errors, they claim.