Does the Accounting Profession Discipline Its Members Differently After Public Scrutiny?

UK professional accounting bodies (PAB): Members’ unethical behaviors and exclusion

“…In addition, there is now more publication of outcomes of disciplinary procedures in internal communication channels, but not to the public. Mescall et al (2017) concluded that this action is consistent with Parker's (1994) suggestions that professional ethics serve to protect the profession's private interests, by demonstrating their capability to self-regulate. Mataira and Van Peursem (2010) compared the disciplinary procedures in two accounting professional bodies in New Zealand (The Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand (NZICA) and CPA Australia (CPAA)) to understand their similarities despite their seemingly different historical and practical antecedents.…”

“…This secrecy, however, seems to have changed as many professional bodies now publicly disclose information about their members' unethical behavior, the actions they took and the consequent disciplinary actions effected. For example, Mescall et al (2017) examined the Canadian context and find a positive relationship between public scrutiny of the profession and the severity of sanctions for disciplinary issues. They showed that the introduction of the Canadian Public Accountability Board in 2003, which increased public scrutiny, has led to heavier sanctions for violations of professional rules.…”

The quest for morally competent future Muslim accountants

“…Professional competence and diligence : The Muslim accountant must possess the requisite skill necessary to successfully discharge his duties. To be able to consistently produce accurate, reliable and high quality work, diligence is a critical attribute that an accountant must possess (Mescall et al , 2016; Chen and Tsay, 2017; Rowbottom, 2017).…”

“…The credibility of the work produced by accountants is based completely on their ability to be objective and to prevent their biases and personal opinions from affecting the quality of their work (Aghdam and Karimzadeh, 2017;Saadeh et al, 2017;Schoenfeld et al, 2017 (3) Professional competence and diligence: The Muslim accountant must possess the requisite skill necessary to successfully discharge his duties. To be able to consistently produce accurate, reliable and high quality work, diligence is a critical attribute that an accountant must possess (Mescall et al, 2016;Chen and Tsay, 2017;Rowbottom, 2017). (4) Confidentiality: The Muslim accountant must never divulge information obtained about an organization during the course of discharging his or her duties without permission unless he or she is legally or professionally obliged to do so.…”

External Auditors' Judgment and Decision Making: An Audit Process Task Analysis

“…Ethical requirements comprise independence and other ethical requirements included in the code of conduct for the accounting profession (CAS 200.CA16‐CA17). Although the jurisdiction for codes of conduct and its enforcement reside at a provincial level in Canada (Mescall, Phillips, and Schmidt ), fundamental principles embodied in the code of conduct for the Canadian accounting profession include objectivity, integrity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, and professional behavior (CAS 200.CA17; Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario, ). Although objectivity is a topic frequently examined in the auditing literature, the remaining ethical principles tend to be less frequently examined as discussed below.…”