Why Accountants Must Operate Within the Bounds of Ethical Values – ICAN.
Budding accountants have been enjoined to ply their trade within the boundaries of ethical values in order to enhance the credibility of the profession.
Wunmi Adetokunbo-Ajayi, FCA, a top executive of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Nigeria who made the call in Lagos recently at the 24th Accounting Technicians West Africa (AATWA) conference said operating within the framework of ethical values was important to the accountant because it “safeguards the reputation of the profession, facilitates commerce and industry, promotes growth and prosperity and help sustain a reliable and trustworthy economic mechanism”.
Tokunbo-Ajayi, who is the Partner, Digital Risk and Cybersecurity at PwC dwelt on five ethical pillars of accounting which every accountant must endeavour to abide by namely “ integrity, confidentiality, objectivity, professional competence/due care and professional behavior”.
According to her “integrity is an obligation of fairness and honesty in professional and business relationships”, but she added that accountants must display the accompanying attributes of independence and objectivity in their professional dealings. This, she said, requires them “not to compromise their professional judgment because of bias, conflict of interest or undue influence of others”.
On confidentiality which requires prudence in handling privileged information obtained through client relationship, she pointed out that this could be jettisoned in the public interest if it involves non-compliance with Laws and Regulations (NOCLAR). On the other hand she explained that professionalism implies that “accountants are required to comply with relevant laws and avoid any action that may bring disrepute to the profession”.
In his own paper Professor Francis Iyoha, FCA, of the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State identified branding as a key component of professional accounting practice. He implored budding accountants to define and control their brand identities by using the right “content, capacity and character”. Some of the brand identity enhancers which he said would help the professional accountants include proper listening and understanding of instructions before actions, timely discharge of tasks and assignments, communicating in clear and simple terms as well as understating and appreciating the values of the organization, among others.