Is there life after being ethical according to the ACCA Code of Ethics

To be fair, this whole “ethics” thing doesn’t seem to go down too well in the companies of any country. The trick is in how you put your concerns across. If you’ve sent out a scathing report, then it’s not difficult to see why it might not have gone down too well with the people you sent it to.

Its difficult to be ethical in today’s business world as being unethical is the norm.
Its the norm to evade taxes, file falsified VAT returns, window dress financial statements, etc
Such unethical behavior may be most rampant in private companies that are owner managed with little attention being paid to ethics and professionalism.

How are we going to get past this when its embedded in our everyday activities?

As accountants we are guided by ACCA’s Code of Ethics and Conduct but we are the very same ones that allow company directors to dictate our stance on the matter.
We as accountants need to take a stance against such unethical behavior but I don’t see this happening anytime soon as our employers reward such unscrupulous behavior and we are motivated by money and what we can gain for ourselves.

Its time we stand up together as professional ethical accountants and put an end to it!!

Dear Nati,

I think you are playing to the gallery. As a person with 25 years of experience in business world I can tell you that your first move itself was little over enthused by the freshness infused by ACCA studies and relevant ethical practices one is expected to follow as an ACCA member.

The code of ethics of ACCA is not to be blindly applied straight forward without being known the situation and behave as an adviser and complainant when you are not expected to be so. Even ACCA, and for that matter any other professional bodies does not encourage to apply its code of ethics as a complaint or advise unless you are not in a position to do so. If you intended whistle blowing, then you approached the wrong person. If your company is not a listed company where general public is not largely interested and no investment firms invested your present acts could invite attention to the government bodies and may be by banks. But you opted to ” write ” to CFO, a bad idea. You could have discussed with him/her on the matter, which he could have accepted, and you could have conveyed your stand to him. ACCA code of ethics do not insist members to put effort relentlessly to change an employer in case one found to be unethical, instead when members find the going tough, a member should opt to resign/withdraw the assignment. In case the matter is of social impact the member has a social responsibility to inform wrong doings to the appropriate authority.

Also you could have written to ACCA to seek an advise before acting on this.

I do agree to the fact that this world is increasingly becoming unethical on every front, be it business or personal life, materialism is what governing the life of human being. I fear today’s ethical ways will remain just as a choice in the near future and under that circumstances one has to only explain why he/she has opted to do what we consider unethics today over the ethical choice of tomorrow. courtesy: corporate governance compliance principal approach and rule based approach.
It is your personal choice to fight for your rights and trying to change your employer form unethical ways by retaining your position in the company, very difficult though. However if you have the courage and mental toughness to face all the hard ships and ordeal in the coming days, then you don’t need any code of ethics to refer to take inspiration. It is in your mind and as a human being you know what is right and wrong that is accepted by this society to live in harmony.

I wish you all the best

what mike said is spot on.

My only concern is your approach.
it’s true that ethic is or should be practically applied because i don’t see why not, besides we are bombard with ethic through out our Acca studies especially P1 and the ethics module. so it’s important for us especially professional accountants not to allow anyone to bully us into being unethical,
the society relys on us to do our job as professional. people’s investment, job, families rely on that company, so you got to be honest.
imagine a doctor giving faults result.
e.g in the UK on the news yesterday a junior doctor have been given patients all clear for their cancer treatment (cancer free), they just found out some of them still have cancer, treble new for them, so all the people he have seen before are being recall to be check again, disaster!!! what do you thing this people will thing about doctors, trust them????
Bravo for what you have done. more accountant like you this profession will return to pre-Enron collapse.
Like i said earlier, the approach could have been better.
I came across such situation when i was doing the Professional ethics Module and foundation in professionalism but i Applied a bit of P3 – business analysis to the situation first before thinking of what to.
3 Things specifically. (1)scenario analysis (appears in P3 June 13 exam), – Assess the possible outcomes when you take the action you want to take and and decide what you are going to do in each possible outcome.
Any outcome that you do not want to happen, think about it twice. (2) Decision Tree- Do the action with the best outcome or if all looks bad choose the least bad one.
if you know that you cannot handle it then start looking for a new job and plan a whistle blowing as soon as you move on( do not forger F8 knowledge, sufficient, appropriate evidence must be gather first) and finally (3) culture and configuration (P3 – June exam 2013) before you try to do anything in any company you join, first try to understand the culture, belief me it’s very difficult to be able to change the way things are done around here(handy). especially when you do not have the authority to impose change (change management P3) configuration is also very important especially if you want to know the right channel to whistle blow, I thinks Mike has mention this in his advice, know who is in-charge,roles, responsibilities and those who have authority e.g Audit committee (P1,F8). also the control environment. If say these committees are not effective and/or the CEO/CFO have dominant personalities ( like Ron the Commander P3-2010 -Q frigate) going straight to the committees could be useless.
Am not try to lecture anyone as you are all professionals but I think others can also benefit if they face the same situation.
I just think applying P1 and P3 side by side is very essential in makings decision like that.(hence ACCA essential Papers) using only P1 knowledge in very difficult that’s why some think is just theory but blend it with P3 then it can be easily application.
As a professional Accountant always be ready to move on when such unprofessional and unethical employers stand you way, you will always get employment elsewhere or even work for yourself.
well done