The company that offers telephone service in Iowa and 13 other states is admitting to questionable accounting practices. In a teleconference this morning from its headquarters in Denver, Qwest Communications C-E-O and chairman Dick Notebaert says mistakes were clearly made.The company incorrectly applied accounting policies approved by our previous auditor, Arthur Anderson, with certain sales in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Notebaert says the company wrongly recorded one-point-16-billion dollars in sales from over those three years.Notebaert says the regional phone giant will restate earnings reports for 2000 and 2001 because an internal analysis found accounting errors. The C-E-O says the process of restating revenue will probably “take months and not days.” Notebaert says actions are being taken to ensure this type of mistake never happens at Qwest again.Officials say the accounting errors are related to telephone services, and sales of optical capacity and equipment. Qwest will miss the August 14th federal deadline for the nation’s biggest companies to certify the accuracy of their financial statements. The corporation’s accounting practices are already subject of a federal investigation.
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