When dealing with issues such as professional ethics, the stakes can be high. Th

Question

When dealing with issues such as professional ethics, the stakes can be high. This is why such care is taken to painstakingly clarify terms such as integrity and independence in the AICPA Professional Code of Conduct, as they could otherwise be open to interpretation. In this week’s discussion, you will find illustrative examples of these key principles to share and discuss with your peers.

First, review the terms and definitions identified in the “Principles of Professional Conduct” section of the preamble to the AICPA Professional Code of Conduct. Select one of the principles (e.g., responsibilities, public interest, integrity, objectivity and independence, due care, or scope and nature of services) and research a current event that demonstrates that principle being threatened or otherwise not adhered to. (This does not need to be a case strictly about accounting—it could be any relevant business scenario. If you have trouble finding a current event, you can create a hypothetical scenario

Explanation / Answer

The event in the question is related to the principle of violation of public interest. It is a completely hypothetical scenario which is obviously inspired by one of the many real life scenarios witnessed in the developing world.

This city happens to be the capital of the most populous and most backward of the provinces of this developing country. Corruption here is a way of life,and can be seen in all spheres of society. One of the striking examples of corruption is the iillegal mining fo sand and soil for feeding the burgeoning real estate industry buoyed by the growing needs for housing of a huge population and means to park the mammoth reserves of black money. Illegal mining has caused many rivers to change their course, many flat lands to become sites of waterlogging and cause of many evils like landslides and accidents. In a gruesome incident, four young children were drowned in one such site of waterlogging which were thought of as a shallow waterfll. In another incident,a car lost its balance and fell into one such ditch created by illegal mining, injuring its occupants, two of them badly.

Local residents have raised their voice against the menace but the illegal businesses which are almost always owned by the politicians in power or their relatives and friends, continue unabated. Brazenness of the law violators can be understood by the fact that some protestors received a death threat if they did not refrain from protesting.

No solution seems to be in sight, till the current government is in power. Even after the end of the term, the situation will not be much different, because the faces will change, the activities won't.

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