The concept of professional ethics in accountants
Defined by Urdanegui, in the case of accountants, the repercussions become more important as they affect the country socially and economically. That is why the accounting profession is governed by a code of ethics, which serves as a moral and directional guide for the accountant towards transparent performance in the professional field, thereby declaring the intention to comply with society.
Rosella Undanegui defines accounting as an information system by means of which the transactions of a company are processed and analyzed to later interpret the results of the financial statements for decision-making, we can infer that the accounting profession must satisfy the information needs of different agents, such as investors, the tax administration, suppliers or clients, among others.
For this, the accounting profession has the basic principles that must be present in each and every one of the professional activities of an accountant, among which are objectivity or independence of criteria, without favoring anyone and prioritizing professional judgment; the confidentiality, knowing that information has possibly few people have and should remain protected in other words, knowing preserve professional secrecy; the trust that includes the honesty with which the work is carried out, that is, to be upright in our actions and lastly, also very important, the professional competence, keeping professional knowledge updated with the rigor that the market demands.
Fundamental characteristics to be an accountant with professional ethics
Ospina mentions other characteristics to be an accountant with professional ethics since it is necessary to recognize the social responsibility of the public accountant, since their actions are present in every process that organizations and the state face in corruption, tax evasion and other scandals. acts. The public accountant faces questions about his loyalty to the truth. Regarding ethics, different practices have been consumed, one of them is to comply with the rules; the second is an ethic that is compliant with the boss, and the third is ethics as a necessity of the must and not to be. There are also three fundamental characteristics of ethics:
- It has an individual meaning and is a free and conscious decision, where responsibility is non-transferable; It has a social meaning, which acts as an action of the social being and gives importance to the relational, It has a regulatory factor that indicates how the subject behavior should be and compliance with standards
The Public Accountant and professional ethics
Gutiérrez makes mention of what the public accountant and professional ethics are, presents the public accountant as the essence and substance of being, whose reason for being is fair accounts. The counter is the first value. Without its substance, it is not and, without its essence, it ceases to be, it is non-existent. The essence is before the accountant and shapes being accountable, reason for the account. The account, made of time with figures that accumulate time, is made up of dimensions, one concrete and the other abstract, whose linkage is evaluated by equity and inequity valued by external signs of wealth.
The need for public accountants arises from the representativeness delegated by the State, derived from the public, which with their vote, legitimizes and transfers the power to select and appoint guarantors of faith, who become depositaries of a trust at the most of the public. From them, the accountant adheres to absolute values. Trust is based on consistency: modernity is trusted, and the accountant is like a priest who watches over the rituals: the values that this work proposes.
Standards of public accounting and ethics
According to Mancilla, Díaz and Morales, the IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) has long worked towards the goal of having standards that regulate ethical behavior in the accounting profession. public in all member countries.
The development and dissemination of the Code of Professional Ethics, has had the acceptance of several countries such as Mexico and Peru, fully adopted by the Mexican Institute of Public Accountants and by the Board of Deans of Colleges of Public Accountants of Peru "JDCCPP".
This code of Professional Ethics contains five fundamental principles, integrity, objectivity, diligence and professional competence, confidentiality and professional behavior that the Public Accountant has the responsibility and obligation to assume. The application of these principles, in the professional practice, will ensure that the professional development of the Public Accountant is complete and that his conduct is the auspice for the application of the conceptual framework and accounting standards.
The Code of Professional Ethics enables you to identify, assess, and respond to threats of non-compliance with the Fundamental Principles and helps you responsibly adhere to professional conduct to act in the public interest. The Code establishes different scenarios to recognize the threats of non-compliance with the fundamental principles, which prevent the Public Accountant from concluding that if a situation is not specifically prohibited, it is allowed.
According to Cruz, professionals such as the Administrator and the Public Accountant have the responsibility to respond to the users of the information, with an impeccable behavior, regardless of the different pressures that may arise in the market or within an organization; Such pressures can be economic, personal or represent conflicts of interest, among others, and can affect the good performance of the professional. Therefore, Social and Ethical Responsibility towards society is of great importance and it must be very clear what your role is towards it.
Top management and professional ethics
For Quiroz and Soriano, Senior Management, while requiring a morally good nature to exercise ethical leadership, urgently needs to inform employees of how they should behave or, in other words, develop the figure of the morally good manager, which It prompts us to formulate a phrase: "The ethical leadership of Senior Management, through the development of the figure of a morally good manager, positively influences the ethical behavior of the employee." However, ethical leadership is not only developed by Senior Management, in the company there are also groups of people who exercise ethical leadership even when they do not belong to this management group.
References
- Cruz, L. (2017). Perspectives of social responsibility and ethics in the role of the administrator and the public accountant. General ethics for the professions (65-78). Colombia: Ediciones Cooperativas.Gutiérrez, E. (2018). The public accountant as the first and last cause of public trust; In Accounting and Business Vol 13 (109-124). Peru: Copyright Mancilla, E., Díaz, A. & Morales, L. (2018). The Code of Professional Ethics of the Public Accountant in Peru and Mexico. Economics CUC, 39 (2). 109-128 Ospina, M, T. (2019). Beyond Tax Havens: Accounting ethics as a determining factor in building trust. In International Congress of Accounting, Administration and Informatics (29-42). Colombia: Will Quiroz, M. & Soriano, V. (2015). Importance of the practice of ethics in senior management.Ethics and Senior Management (1946-5351). Guanajuato, Mexico: Copyright Academia Journals Urdanegui, R. (2018). The professional ethics of the accountant. In Review of Global Management; Vol. 3 (14-15). Spain: Maisal Editions.
