Final answer:
The areas covered include maintaining accounting practices, ensuring company structure, and enhancing integrity and reputation. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was introduced to reinforce these aspects after historical corporate scandals.Answer is option d.
Step-by-step explanation:
The areas covered in the context described by the question include maintaining generally accepted accounting practices, ensuring company structure, and processes that enhance integrity and reputation. The correct answer is 4) All of the above.
These areas are key components in corporate governance, which involves the mechanisms, processes, and relations used by various parties to control and to operate corporations. The importance of effective corporate governance is underscored by historical accounting scandals such as those involving Enron, Tyco International, and WorldCom, which led to the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act aims to protect investors from accounting fraud by increasing the confidence in financial information provided by public corporations. Each of these areas contributes to the overall health and integrity of a company's operations.