Strategies to maintain high ethical standards in accounting profession

Strategies to maintain high ethical standards in accounting profession.

One of the strategies that can be used to maintain high ethical standards in the accounting profession is by teaching ethics and values in accounting courses. Students should take a special course on professional ethics and values. Accounting has been taught only in terms of technical skills numbers; theory; calculations, rules and standards. There is a need to teach students how to apply ethics values and integrity to accounting decisions.

Secondly is the government should set up regulatory bodies to oversee accounting practices. For example the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in United States. Government and corporate should give incentives for people towards integrity through education and training and support even financial so that can handle ethical dilemmas.

Another way is by establishing the independence of accountants and auditors. Their presentation of financial reports should not be influenced by entities they are working for. Accountants and auditors on their part should encourage good governance within the entities they audit.

Some accounting firms are threatened by increased competition and therefore have to compromise their integrity and independence due to market pressure. Regulations should be made such that companies are not whole reliant on one firm for its income so they do not need to act unethically to keep a steady income.

In conclusion, accounting statements and reports have great importance to investment and financial well being of a nation. They are key in derision making in all sectors. Besides the technical skills of accounting, accounting ethics is the most fundamental practice in accounting.

Reference:

Us Congress. (2002). Sarbanes- Oxley Act of 2002. US Govt. vol 148 (2002): 66.

Statement of ethical professional practice. (2010). Institute of management accountants.                                   `          Retrieved from http://www.inanet.org/ about ethics statementasb

Accounting forum. (2007). Vol 31, issue 3.277-303.

Wikipedia.