Importance of professional Ethics
The importance of professional ethics is that in order for accounting services to be meaningful,
the public must trust the accountants
Trust is built by the knowledge that accountants are bounded by a code of conduct.
Independence and objectivity are key to the provision of professional ethics.
Sustainability is constantly being linked with professional behavior.
The profession of accountancy has a paradoxical image. On one side of the coin, the
accountants are seen as pillar of society, providing financial information in their working lives
and acting as treasurer of church in their spare time of work.
On the other side of the image is the aggressive tax scheme, financial scandals, money
laundering.
Yet the accountants believe that financial information is important. It is necessary for the govt.,
shareholders, trading partners, management and other stakeholders that the financial and
other reports and information provided by the accountants and other assurance service
providers are reliable and can be used by other users when they go about their lives. So, it can
be said that the work that accountants and other assurance service providers do has benefit for
public interest.
It follows from this that, if the profession is to survive and thrive and if its members are to
maintain their position, it can be said that there must be a code of conduct so that the public
can feel that they can trust the accountants.
When a good amount of the profession’s income comes from audit and other assurance
services and where the public is trying to gain additional confidence in the reliability of
information, it is no exaggeration to say that the income of the profession depends on the
accountants reputation of their professional behavior.