The Board of Boyds TSD Bank Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Board of Boyds TSD Bank - Essay Example Larry Lizard who insisted on the group accounts being completed immediately. This situation presented an ethical dilemma on my part since there was a conflict of interest between my personal responsibilities an employee as well as professional responsibilities, and the ethics involved therein. Ethical responsibilities of qualified accountants To begin with, Burgstahler et al. (2007) stated that accounting is essentially concerned with recording, measuring, and communicating information relating to the financial health of a company to interested parties that are internal and external to the business. The process begins at the point of transaction or when an economic event takes place such as offering of essential services or the receipt remuneration for the good or service delivered. The process ends when the economic event is recorded in a financial statement that is designed to enable the prospective users to make well-informed decisions in regards to their dealing with the company. Therefore, it is correct to state that the main duties of accountants is recording and reporting of financial information and this means that they bear greater responsibility in regards to the impact the financial statements will have on the users especially the decision taken in reliance to the financial statements (Roslender and Hart, 2003). With reference to the writings by Shah et al. (2011), they stated that because of the sensitivity of accounting duties, accountants are normally required by the law as well as the professional body to abide by certain ethical standards. In the writings by Bennett et al. (2006), they stated that ethics in the field of accounting refers to the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy practice. Cheffers and Michael (2007) added that in the present moment there is great emphasis on accounting ethics, which is largely, attributed to the recent corporate scandals that even resulted to the collapse of some financial instituti ons. In order to counter-attack the criticisms and hinder fraudulent accounting practices, various professional accounting bodies and government agencies have designed remedies and regulations that are aimed at improving ethics within the accounting profession (Love, 2008). One of the key ethical responsibilities that have been imposed on qualified accountants across the World is integrity, of which Duska et al. (2011) described it as the act of being straightforward and honest in all professional and business relationships. Edward (2006) stated that this ethical responsibility is built on the premise that the advice and work performed by qualified accountants should not be influenced by self-interest or the interest of others. The International Ethics Standards Board of Accountants’ (IESBA) Code of Ethics section 110 under the integrity section states that a qualified accountant is not allowed to knowingly associate with financial statements that he or she believes that the information contained in such statements is misleading. Additionally, a qualified accountant is forbidden from knowingly associating with financial statements that has been furnished in a reckless manner and thirdly, statements that have numerous omissions of certain crucial information, which makes the entire statement misleading. The second key ethical