Dave Cotton is chairman of Cotton & Company LLP, Certified Public Accountants. Cotton & Company is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. The firm was founded in 1981 and has a practice concentration in assisting United States Federal and State government agencies, inspectors general, and government grantees and contractors with a variety of government program-related assurance and advisory services. Cotton & Company has performed grant and contract, indirect cost rate, financial statement, financial related, and performance audits for more than two dozen Federal inspectors general (including the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation) as well as numerous other Federal and State agencies and programs.
Cotton & Company’s Federal agency audit clients have included the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the U.S. Marshals Service. Cotton & Company also assists numerous Federal agencies in preparing financial statements and improving financial management and accounting systems.
Mr. Cotton received his BS in mechanical engineering (1971) and an MBA in management science and labor relations (1972) from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. He also pursued graduate studies in accounting and auditing at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business (1977 to 1978). He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM).
Mr. Cotton is presently serving on the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards (the Council advises the United States Comptroller General on promulgation of Government Auditing Standards—GAO’s yellow book). He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Academy for Government Accountability. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Institute for Truth in Accounting. He served on the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Anti-Fraud Programs and Controls Task Force and co-authored Managing the Business Risk of Fraud: A Practical Guide. He served on the American Institute of CPAs Anti-Fraud Task Force and co-authored Management Override: The Achilles Heel of Fraud Prevention. He is the past-chairman of the AICPA Federal Accounting and Auditing Subcommittee and has served on the AICPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee and the Government Technical Standards Subcommittee of the AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee.
Mr. Cotton served on the board of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants (VSCPA), and on the VSCPA Litigation Services Committee, Professional Ethics Committee, Quality Review Committee, and Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee. He is member of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs (GWSCPA) and is serving on the GWSCPA Professional Ethics Committee. He is a member of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) and is past-advisory board chairman and past-president of the AGA Northern Virginia Chapter. He is also a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
Mr. Cotton has testified as an expert in governmental accounting and auditing issues and fraud issues before the United States Court of Federal Claims and other administrative and judicial bodies.
Mr. Cotton has spoken frequently on professional ethics and auditors’ fraud detection responsibilities under SAS 99, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit. He also has been an adjunct instructor at the Inspectors General Auditor Training Institute (Auditing the Federal Contracting Process and Contract and Procurement Fraud) and currently teaches at the George Mason University Small Business Development Center (Fundamentals of Accounting for Government Contracts).
