Ethics are a hot topic in accounting and managerial accounting is not immune.

Case:

Chuck Moore supervises two consulting jobs for the fi rm of Price and Waters, LLP, which is a consulting fi rm that helps organizations become more effi cient. One of the consulting jobs is for the U.S. Department of Defense and the other is for General Motors, Inc. Chuck received the monthly cost reports about three weeks after month-end. The General Motors job contained bad news. After getting up his nerve, Chuck called his boss the following week to pass on the bad news. The General Motors job is only half done, but we have already spent all of the $1 million that we expected to spend on that job, he said. However, we have spent only $500,000 of the $800,000 that we expected to spend on the U.S. Department of Defense job, even though we are 90 percent done with the work. His boss told Chuck, Assign the rest of the costs needed to complete the General Motors job to your U.S. Department of Defense job. Were under budget on that job and we get reimbursed for costs on government jobs.

Formulate a response to the prompts at the end of the case in memorandum format.

Discuss this case using the steps for analyzing an ethical dilemma:

Find the facts involved in the case

Find the ethical issues and stakeholders

What values are questioned in this case?

What are the alternatives? ( list 3)

Evaluate the alternatives in terms of the values.

What are the consequences of the alternatives?

What is the correct course of action in this case based on your assessment above?

Present the above information in a business memorandum to explain your position on this ethical dilemma to your classmates. Include in your memo, a least one resource an accountanthas available to him to help him with his ethical dilemma.