Ethical dilemma no. 2 There was a change taking place in the position of the chief accountant in the company. The so-far accountant had been working there for a long time. Generally domineering, highly principled and taciturn, she was regarded to be a professional authority. She always spoke using such a professional language that nobody dared to ask questions lest object to anything. In several recent years she often left work to attend different professional training courses. Somebody even said that due to changes in accounting he could not peacefully work in accounting. The company always revealed profit, which made the board calm, besides they never had any solvency problems. The change in this position happened to became necessary because some very strange affairs began to get out from under the carpet. And it was caused by a trainee who out of sheer professional curiosity kept asking about some solutions and was surprised by some them. She happened to conclude (on the basis on the invoices issued by training institutions) that the accountant had completed twice the same post-graduate studies in the same institution. Oddly enough - in the same year. A detective instinct led her to find out an astounding coincidence of names of mother and daughter. The practice of using this coincidence by the accountant was not incidental, though both ladies did not always attend the courses simultaneously. The accountant formally attending the course could stay at home, while her daughter was trained at the "expense of company run by her mother". Task: 1. Comment on the presented situation, indicating what the trainee should do in this situation. 2. Point to a principle or principles of the Code of professional ethics in accounting violated here by the accountant. Ethical dilemma no. 2 There was a change taking place in the position of the chief accountant in the company. The so-far accountant had been working there for a long time. Generally domineering, highly principled and taciturn, she was regarded to be a professional authority. She always spoke using such a professional language that nobody dared to ask questions lest object to anything. In several recent years she often left work to attend different professional training courses. Somebody even said that due to changes in accounting he could not peacefully work in accounting. The company always revealed profit, which made the board calm, besides they never had any solvency problems. The change in this position happened to became necessary because some very strange affairs began to get out from under the carpet. And it was caused by a trainee who out of sheer professional curiosity kept asking about some solutions and was surprised by some them. She happened to conclude (on the basis on the invoices issued by training institutions) that the accountant had completed twice the same post-graduate studies in the same institution. Oddly enough - in the same year. A detective instinct led her to find out an astounding coincidence of names of mother and daughter. The practice of using this coincidence by the accountant was not incidental, though both ladies did not always attend the courses simultaneously. The accountant formally attending the course could stay at home, while her daughter was trained at the "expense of company run by her mother". Task: 1. Comment on the presented situation, indicating what the trainee should do in this situation. 2. Point to a principle or principles of the Code of professional ethics in accounting violated here by the accountant
