PART A: Ethical Dilemmas - Issues and Solutions

Most accountants in business and the public sector, whether working in a small organisation or serving as the chief financial officer (CFO) of an international corporation, face ethical dilemmas during their professional careers. Ethical dilemmas come in many forms and accountants sometimes need support to address complex and challenging conflicts. Accountants may also treat ethical dilemmas as business decisions and not utilise their professional code to assess potential courses of action.

Required:

Identify and describe THREE (3) ethical dilemmas after systematically reviewing recent media articles/postings/legislations/reports/journal articles/broadcast or social media. Gather the relevant facts and for each issue describe:

why it is an ethical problem;

Identify the affected parties -individuals, organisations and key stakeholders affected; in what way are they affected;

how would these ethical issues affect the reputation of the accounting profession;

how would these ethical issues affect the public interest; propose solution to each ethical issue and

describe which fundamental principles are affected and what are the threats to compliance with the following fundamental principles of ethics developed by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA):

Integrity

Objectivity

Professional competence and due care

Confidentiality

Professional behaviour

While writing your essay consider the following threats to fundamental principles:

Self interest

Self-review

Advocacy

Familiarity

Intimidation

Are there safeguards which can eliminate or reduce the threats to an acceptable level? For examples safeguards can be created by: profession, legislation and regulation; work environment; organisation's internal procedures and policies; whistleblowing procedure.