Audit Committee is said to play an essential role in a company's corporate governance. It is seen, amongst other things, as

being "a crucial component of effective corporate governance, serving to strengthen auditor's independence and providing

an independent forum where issues relating to the audit can be referred on a timely basis". Enron, Worldcom and HIH all

had impressive audit committees, yet these companies failed.

Given this, is the audit committee all that it is made out to be or is there still a case for the maintenance of an audit

committee in a corporation?