Ethics and financial reporting

Abstract

In order to establish the way in which Chartered Accountants in South Africa regard the ethics involved in the presentation and management of reported results, the opinions of a random sample of Chartered Accountants were surveyed. It was found that South African Chartered Accountants appear to be more conservative than their American counterparts and have a different ethical perspective towards financial reporting. In general, auditors were found to be slightly more ethical than Chartered Accountants in industry and commerce. Two thirds of the respondents also indicated that they had encountered a significant amount of unethical practice in the preparation of financial statements.