Tag: ethics

The future Chartered Accountant [CA(SA)] will look a lot different from the CA(SA) of the past, according to Professor Gary Swartz, founder of the Institute of Accounting Science (IAS), but if numbers remain numbers, and formulas remain formulas, what must change for the evolution of the CA(SA)?

I am regularly concerned by just how easily and it may be argued intentionally a Professional Body misinterprets its obligation towards the enforcement of Ethical and Behaviourally acceptable conduct on the one hand, and on the other its obligation to ensure acceptable levels of competency and ongoing personal development to maintain that competent profile. These are neither the same thing, nor are they interchangeable.

In an ideal world, successful private companies would distribute their wealth responsibly among stakeholders. Instead, many companies allow the unchecked pursuit of financial success to distort their thinking and their values, leading to extremes of wealth accumulation. In our materialistic society, displaying financial success is accepted, even overtly encouraged. However, many such habits lead to a deadly culture of arrogance and a (barely concealed) disdain for those who are less successful.

Is the accounting profession experiencing a crisis of credibility? Current events locally and internationally are demanding higher levels of accountability in the accounting and auditing professions. Unethical accounting and auditing practices in South Africa have reverberated globally, with the reputations of large accounting and auditing firms severely damaged by their links to public service corruption and financial misrepresentation by large multinational companies like Steinhoff.

In his much-lauded State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Cyril Ramaphosa devoted considerable attention to the challenge of rooting out corruption in government. The IoDSA has consistently argued that ethical institutions in both the public and private sectors alike are created from the top down, and that an organisation’s directors bear the main responsibility for ensuring that ethics are embedded in its DNA.

The need for ethical leadership is much clearer and more urgent now than it has ever been since the dawn of the new South Africa. Unfortunately, it took massive corruption to elevate the importance of ethical leadership in the public consciousness, and so the cost has been high to get us to this level of awareness.

Ernest Mazansky, Tax Director, Werksmans Attorneys and Dr Ivor Blumenthal, discuss the controversy of the recent leak of hacked client records called the Paradise...

Clayton Thomopoulos | Director & Certified Fraud Examiner | Deloitte Risk Advisory | cthomopoulos@deloitte.co.za | www.deloitte.com | A fraud and ethics hotline remains a critical mechanism in...

Ernest Mazansky | Tax Director | Werksmans Attorneys | emazansky@werksmans.com | www.werksmans.com | This seems to be much of a replay of the Panama Papers.  But I...

Lee Astfalck | Director | Norton Rose Fulbright | lee.astfalck@nortonrosefulbright.com | www.nortonrosefulbright.com | State capture, growing public discontent fuelled by social media at the activities...