In this case study, the two partners of GBB are the Engagement Quality Review Partner (EQRP) and the audit partner of LPL respectively. As they are a part of the same firm, the Audit partner, who found a material misstatement which changed the profit figures and which he should have been communicated to LPL, decided to talk internally in his firm where he was told by his senior to cover up the mistake done by their consulting staff by changing the accounting policy itself and give an unqualified report for their own personal benefits
In this whole scenario, the following ,fundamental ethical principles are being violated:
Integrity
This principle puts an obligation on all assurance practitioners to be straightforward and honest in
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In this case, Jane is making Gordan violating the principle of objectivity by trying to influence his decision of disclosing the wrong variance calculation for saving the reputation, market share and profits of their firm which will be affected if he’ll disclose it .
Professional Competence and Due Care
This principle imposes the obligation on assurance practitioners to maintain professional knowledge and skill at the level required to ensure that a client receives competent assurance services based on current developments in practice, legislation and techniques and act diligently and in accordance with the standards issued by the External PES 1 (Revised) 8 Reporting Board, the New Zealand Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the New Zealand Accounting Standards
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Gordan should follow the fundamental ethical principles and professionalism towards his auditing engagement. He should keep his professional scepticism hat on all the time and should have the ability to make his own decisions regarding his audit findings.
He should keep the matters confidential in first place but then if by chance he discusses with anybody, he should be objective enough to not get influenced by his seniors or anybody and go on the wrong path. He was wrong on his part discussing the material misstatement with Jane rather than directly informing his client LPL. Maintaining his integrity, he would have either truthfully discussed the matter directly with LPL management so that they can work over it to correct their profit or should have given a qualified report stating about the misstatement and inflated profits due to the large unfavourable labour variance which was recorded as an asset.
Being objective, he should not be scared to give an adverse report about the unfavorable variance which was miscalculated by the new system recommended by GBB only and would have decrease the profits already declared by LPL
With every business activity come opportunities for fraudulent behavior which leads to a greater demand for auditors with unscathed ethics. Nowadays, auditors are faced with a multitude of ethical issues, and it is even more problematic when the auditors fail to adhere to the standards of professional conducts as prescribed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The objective of this paper is to analyze the auditors’ compliance with the code of professional conduct in the way it relates to the effectiveness of their audits.
Auditors do not provide audit opinions for different levels of assurance. Therefore, auditors consider providing more or less assurance when modifying evidence for engagement risk to be unnecessary. However, auditors should be professionally responsible to accumulate additional evidence, assign more experienced personnel, and review the audit more thoroughly, particularly when a client poses a higher than normal degree of engagement risk. The auditor should also modify evidence for engagement risk when high legal exposure and other potential actions affecting the auditor
According to PCAOB Ethics and Independence Rule 3520 a registered public accounting firm and its associated persons must be independent of the firm's audit client throughout the audit and professional engagement period. Independence is required for all audit engagements. The auditor must be independent of an entity when performing an engagement according to General Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS). Independence is very significant to the audit profession, because the primary purpose of an audit is to provide financial statement users with reasonable assurance an on whether the financial statements are presented fairly. The auditor’s report gives credibility to an entity financial statement and without an auditor’s report the financial statement would be consider worthless. Reliance on management for the fair presentation of a financial statement would often result with a bias and impressive financial statements that doesn’t reflect a true picture of the entity’s financial position. An auditor’s independence should not in anyway be influenced by any relationship between their client and
Proverbs 10:9 states: “People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall” (New Living Translation).” This Scripture suggests that individuals who do not walk in integrity follow “crooked paths.” They walk in ways that are not morally sound, pure, and honest—but in ways that are corrupt. Clients want accountants with integrity. Thus, integrity is critical to the public trust. As a matter of fact, one of the general definitions of integrity provided by the AICPA Code is that it is a quality from which the public trust derives. Also, it is an element of character fundamental to professional recognition, and it requires members to be (among other things) honest and candid within the constraints of confidentiality (Duska, Duska & Ragatz, 2011). Integrity in the accounting profession involves adhering to the rules and principles of the profession. This includes remaining free of conflicts of interest and maintaining client relationships in which the accountant can remain objective in discharging his or her responsibilities. This requires independence in fact and in appearance as mandated under section 1.200.001.01, Independence Rule the AICPA Code. In other words, no one should be able to view the accountant as being biased with respect to a client’s financial reporting due to an improper client relationship. Lack of integrity in accounting practices has been, and continues to be, a key element in the downfall of many institutions which has hurt the public trust in the accounting
An auditor should keep objectivity at all times. Maire Loughran, a Certified Public Accountant and University Professor, explains “objectivity means the ability to look at facts the client presents, and reviews them with no preconceived notions or prejudices” (52). In other words an auditor has to exercise his ability to review information in a no subjective manner, and perform auditing work free of conflicts of interest. Many instances have occurred when objectivity was not present while performing audits, for instance the case of Bernard Madoff’s auditor, David G. Friehling, from the firm of Friehling & Horowitz, illustrates it well. On 2009, William K. Rashbaum and Diana B. Henriques, both reporters at The New York Times, inform in the online version of their newspaper:
The accountants in this case who faced ethical dilemmas were Russell Smith, Cardillo’s controller, Helen Shepherd, Touche Ross audit partner, Roger Shlonsky, KMG audit partner, and audit subordinates of both Shepherd and Shlonsky. First, Smith received a request from the company’s attorney, Riley, to sign an affidavit regarding the nature of a transaction with United Airlines, which he knew to be recorded incorrectly. Russell was aware that signing this affidavid would result in a misrepresentation of Cardillo’s revenue. Each of the auditors faced ethical dilemmas when pressured by key executives of Cardillo, including the COO, CEO and vice president of finance, to accept the adjusting entry as booked correctly. Without further investigation of this transaction, the auditors would have violated professional standards of integrity and ethical requirements if they had accepted Cardillo’s explanations for the “secret” transaction with United Airlines.
I strive to embody integrity in everything that I strive to do. This means that each and every one of my actions must encompass and demonstrate the values I possess, no matter what the context of the situation. Additionally adhere to high moral principles and professional standards put forth by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Secondly, I believe that it is important to be honest and respectful. I desire to express truth in every written and spoken word. Presenting information in a fair and impartial way when it comes to performing accounting duties is necessary in a profession that serves the public interest. I believe that being respectful means showing consideration and thoughtfulness in my relationships with my fellow those that I come into contact with. This goes hand in hand in treating everyone from fami...
Even though before this time period a company’s auditors were required to maintain an independent view since they were suppose to act as a protector to all end users it was not always the case. An environment was created with a Utilitarian approach that said company’s can offer package services that offer consulting services why at the same time audit the company’s financial statements. But when issue arose it became difficult to jeopardize the superior revenue that was obtained through consulting
It may occasionally happen, but this is the exception rather than the rule. However, this does not absolve the auditor of assessing the risk of fraud of material misstatements in audits. Quite the opposite is true. The audit team must remain alert for any potential fraud (Placeholder2). (#5). However, despite the intense training auditors complete, as well as the outlined procedures they adhere to, a survey by professional services firm KPMG Peat Marwick, LLP, reported that external auditors were the source of reporting fraud only five percent of the time while 58 percent of all fraud detected was brought to management’s attention by employees. (KPMG Peat Marwick LLP). (#9) These employees who disclose evidence of fraud within the company are referred to as
The purpose of an auditor's job is to make an assertion. In order to do so, evidence must be collected to authenticate said opinion. AS 1105 details the characteristics of audit evidence and the steps necessary to obtain an appropriate level of audit evidence. If the risk of material misstatement is high, the amount of required evidence collected also increases. Quality over quantity is another precept of audit evidence. The higher the quality, the less evidence is needed; whereas increasing the amount of substandard evidence collected does not bolster a position. The relevance and reliability are also two metrics used to evaluate audit evidence; both are required characteristics and must be
It is highly essential for accountants and business professionals to maintain a standard of ethical conduct in the workplace as the nature of their work places them in position of trust. (Senarante, 2011). Accountants have the responsibility to ensure that their duties are performed in accordance with the five fundamental principles set out in the Code of Professional Ethics such as integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentially and professional behaviour (Cunningham et al. 2014). Accountants are expected to be reliable and trustworthy. Thus they are required to act ethically in relation to their clients, employers and the general public in order to provide quality services in the best interest of the society (Eginiwin & Dike, 2014). The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) have established a code of ethics for accountants, allowing each specific country to add their own national ethical standards to the code to reflect cultural differences. The code provides emphasis on the five fundamental principles as well as resolution of ethical conflicts. In Australia, professional accounting bodies such as CPA Australia, Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICCA) and the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) adopt the Australian Professional and Ethical
information on an audit for a client. His project manager, Oliver Freeman, changed the analysis
Kent thought that the forecast for 2017 does not affect the audit of 2016 financial statements. Instead of assuming Dato Meng will probably amend that forecast every month, Kent should take into consideration that the ending balances in financial statement of 2016 might be purposely misstated in order to meet the forecast for
The code of ethics promotes the ethical values that internal auditing professionals are to uphold and practice by. The first principle in the code of ethics is integrity. The integrity of an internal auditor builds the foundation for trust with the client; if a client trust’s the auditor the communication process will be smoother when delivering difficult messages. The second principle is objectivity. Objectivity requires an internal auditor to preform and report the results of the audit without any bias. Objectivity aids in the delivery of grim news because the stakeholders can be assured that the findings and reports are the truth and aren’t swayed by the dislike or favoritism by the auditor. The objectivity principle also requires an internal auditor to disclose all material known facts so the stakeholders have the full picture and not just bits and pieces that could alternate the overall impression of the final report. Another principle within the code of ethics is competency. The competency requirement ensures that an internal auditor can’t perform and audit in which they don’t have the expertise or knowledge. Knowing that the auditor performing the audit and delivering the difficult findings and messages is competent and knowledgeable in what they are doing eases the communication process. Clients have the security and comfort of knowing that the auditor isn’t just pulling something out of a hat so that it appears as though they know what they are talking about. The auditor must actually understand the rules, regulations, laws, and obligations a company has to abide by before even entering into an auditing
The Code of Ethics of the professional accounting bodies in Australia and its fundamental principles ………………………………………………………………………….…………3