The Failure Of The External Audit Function - 2628 Words

Q1 Accounting firms have evolved during the last three decades to the point where they become so diversified and generated more earnings as opposed to what they have traditionally offered in basic services. This development carried their culture toward profit maximization and cost efficiency, they started to operate similar to every other business where competition and customer satisfaction and retention are paramount. Business ethics, individual ethics, and public interest orientation were declining to a certain extent due to the pressure caused by the previously mentioned financial orientation. The circle of people including the auditors knew or should have known that Enron’s glittering surface masked a different reality. (Satava, 2006) It was obvious that the whole system of corporate governance back then had major issues where Enron s collapse was in a way the wakeup call which triggered major reforms left, right and centre by governments and other key stakeholders. Having said that, the scope of the topic is too multidimensional to cover the lot and we will be concentrating in the answer on the failure of the external audit function by highlighting couple of readily available diagnosis of Duncan s behavioural conduct and try to apply remedies from the ethical perspective using two dimensions, philosophical theories of ethics and from the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards. David Duncan whose partners debated dropping Enron as a client few months beforeShow MoreRelatedWorld Com Case Essay1081 Words   |  5 PagesWorldCom: internal audit lessons to be learnt On June 9 2003, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New York issued a report on the WorldCom accounting fraud that expands on the courts earlier findings of mismanagement, lack of corporate governance, and concern regarding the integrity of the companys accounting and financial reporting functions. 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