Ethics Article Review

Ethics Article Review

The article I chose to analyze is "It's a Matter of Integrity- Professional Ethics; Accounting" by William L. Schreiber. In the article Mr. Schreiber discusses how public trust of accounting firms eroded after Enron, WorldCom, and other recent similar situations. In the article he also explains what CPA's are doing to repair their reputation in the publics' eye.

Mr. Schreiber also discusses CPAs using good sound judgment, and being committed to integrity. He also states that CPAs are scrutinized as a whole more now than in any time in modern history.

"If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers." Dee Hock

Ethics Article Review

I felt that the author was doing his best to defend his chosen profession, not all accountants are dishonest. He stated that CPAs make decisions regarding a matter of materiality or proper disclosure in financial statements, making determinations of whether the item in question falls above or below the line drawn in the sand. My question is who draws the line and are the customers given a choice? I understand that the CPA's judgment is often used to make the hard decisions, but as a customer "ignorance of the law is no excuse".

The author discussed where integrity comes into play. He went on and on about taxes, and tax refunds. And how it is up to the CPA to do the best for the customer, again I ask why would there be an integrity question. I was raised with the belief that you have integrity or you don't. The author also states that the California Board of Accountancy regulates that CPAs take an eight hour course on professional conduct every six years. But I have to renew my driver's license every 3 years. Does this make sense?

Conclusion

In this article the author spends a lot of time in damage control mode. If ethics (good ethics) were practiced in the first place there would be no need. The company I currently work for has 8 sites that do the same type of refurbishment work that my site does. A few months ago the corporation took away the ability for the individual sites to purchase their own repair parts. This was in response to sites over ordering parts and ordering the wrong parts. By the doing this corporation has decreased the amount of money wasted on parts. But on the other hand this action has hampered the rest of the sites. The action of a few people in essence has brought the corporations production to a stand