Ethical challenges in certified public accounting and the Enron scandal

Certified Public Accounting

The job of a certified public accountant is one that not everyone would enjoy and one that not everyone can do. Working with numbers can be a difficult job at best, and the people who do it sometimes struggle with ethical dilemmas. Others who remain completely ethical and unconflicted find that they are occasionally outcast from companies where ethical work is not the item of the day. However, most companies offer accountants a good place to work where there are no ethical problems. Those kinds of concerns were generally seen at companies like Enron and others who used incorrect and deceitful accounting practices in order to avoid showing that they were not making the kind of money that they said they were.

With that in mind, some accountants felt as though they were being looked down upon or mistrusted because of their profession. This has generally not been the case for most accountants, though, because they are seen as important people who have jobs that require a lot of skill and training. Working with numbers which must balance exactly can be very challenging, especially for large or busy companies where there are a lot of accounts involved that need to be kept current. Discrepancies can take a lot of time when a person has to track them down, as well, and that is something that many accountants do not actually realize before they get involved in their profession. It is something that needs to be noticed, however, and it is certainly worth considering.

State of the Industry

Accounting expert Walter Rush stated that: "Accounting principles require you to make an estimate and the accounting principles also know you're not going to get everything right." While this sounds good in theory and leaves room for the very human concept of making honest mistakes, it also allows for another very human concept -- making deliberate mistakes and then attempting to make those mistakes look like accidents (Roper, 2006). Allowing for 'wiggle room' when there are numbers involved (especially when those numbers deal with money) is a highly dangerous concept, which is likely why the higher-ups at Enron found themselves in so much trouble when the accounting scandal broke (Roper, 2006).

Those at Enron, such as Jeff Skilling, either believed that accounting allowed for estimation or decided that they would use that as a good excuse to play with the numbers that they were using, even though they knew that the numbers were being manipulated in a way that was dishonest (Roper, 2006).

The quote itself is problematic because it implies that the individual making the statement thinks that it is all right to estimate or adjust numbers that effect money and also that the principles of accounting assume that the estimates that are being made are not going to be accurate (Roper, 2006). Now, it is certainly understandable that honest mistakes can sometimes be made and that numbers can be off very slightly. However, the numbers that Enron provided and the numbers that were actually accurate were so far apart that applying an 'honest mistake' or 'estimate' comment of any kind to these numbers and the Enron situation is completely unrealistic (Roper, 2006). Most people likely know this, but apparently Rush was hoping to make individuals believe that the problems that were seen at Enron were completely honest mistakes that were innocently made instead of deliberate misconceptions and dishonest business practices that the management at Enron was involved with.

Because of problems like Enron, the state that the accounting industry is in is not the same state that it was in before the Enron problems occurred. That is a very important thing to take into consideration. When people decide that they want to get involved in the accounting profession they often find that they are looked down upon by some while others feel that it is still a very respectable profession (Roper, 2006). There are 'bad people' in every profession, and there are also good people -- some of whom make poor decisions. There are also better measures in place to keep things like the Enron scandal from taking place again, which is another important thing to take into consideration when it comes to people getting into the accounting profession today.

Job Opportunities

There are a host of opportunities for accountants (Bradley, 1994). Being a certified public accounting rather than only having some training in accounting opens even more doors, too. This is because the certification allows a person to do a lot more and work with areas of accounting that others might not be able to do (Bradley, 1994). That is important for making more money, as well. Not every accounting professional wants to work for a big-name firm or a high-dollar client. Some are very happy working with smaller clients or taking on several clients. Others work for a specific company and they do not do accounting for anyone else (Bradley, 1994). Both are good choices.

How much money they make and how much work they have to do are greatly affected by this. There are several different ways that an accountant can work. He or she can work independently and start up his or her own accounting business. He or she can also work with an accounting firm that services a lot of different clients or work with a large company as an employee and just be the accountant (or one of the accountants) on staff at that particular company. The opportunities that people have for work as an accountant are almost endless and they are always needed.

Education & Training

The accounting profession is recommending more education for accounting professionals for many reasons, but the largest of these seems to be the fact that all professionals must be accountable for the choices that they make (Bradley, 1994). There have been too many recent scandals in the news to make the American public comfortable with accountants and large corporations, and allegations of embezzlement, misrepresentation, and other issues are increasing. Because of this, accounting educators are looking for ways to show that they must be tough on accountants and ensure that they understand the rules completely (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004). If they have enough education they cannot use ignorance as an excuse and insist that they only made a mistake when they actually did something deliberate and deceitful (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004).

Other reasons for increasing the education that accountants receive include stricter standards from governing bodies and associations, helping to take the burden off of other accountants, reducing the on-the-job training time that new accountants need, and other issues (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004). Many groups are resistant of this, however, because they want to get new people into the field as quickly as possible to take the burden off of others. Also, students of accounting resist this because it means that they will be required to perform more work, which is likely something that many of them will not be interested in doing (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004). Most, however, are not deterred by the '150-hour rule.' It is an important rule and was created for valid reasons. Anyone who truly loves numbers and wants to be an accountant will likely not be stopped simply because they have to work a bit harder to get there (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004).

Salaries & Wages

How much money an accountant makes can vary widely. There are some accountants right out of school who can expect to make a modest salary under $50,000. Some accountants make into the hundreds of thousands of dollars because they work with huge, multi-national firms or they work for a large company and that company pays them very handsomely (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004). There are all kinds of choices in between those two extremes, too. Generally, the more experience an accountant has the better his or her chances for making a higher salary.

He or she will be more respected in the accounting community and there will be some name recognition (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004). Many accountants also get a reputation for being very ethical and very intelligent people, and the accountants that best keep that reputation are needed by companies that are trying to keep their own reputations intact (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004). When a company's reputation takes a hit because of unethical practices, getting a good accountant into the mix can help to mitigate the damage.

Misconceptions

A common misconception about accountants is that they are all stodgy people who do not know how to have any fun. In reality, this is not the case. Accountants like numbers. They enjoy working with them and they are, presumably, good at what they do. However, they are also human beings like everyone else and they enjoy all kinds of activities. With that in mind, it is very important to be aware of the fact that there is no reason to assume that an accountant is a boring individual.

Another common misconception is that accountants are not trustworthy because of issues like the Enron scandal. When one considers how many accountants are out there, though, the number of accountants who are dishonest is a very, very small percentage. All professions have people in them who are less than completely honest, and the accounting profession as a whole should not be punished because of a few people who did things incorrectly. That would be grossly unfair to the people who have worked very hard to get where they are in their accounting careers and who would never fake the numbers just to make a company look good or to get any other benefits.

Conclusion

Accounting, overall, is a good profession to be in. there is always a need for accountants because they do so much good for companies -- especially companies that are very large and that have a difficult time keeping up with the people that they get money from and pay money out to. Accountants are needed for these kinds of companies, and many smaller companies use them, as well. They are also used by individuals who are doing their taxes, starting up a business, or otherwise doing something with their money that they are a little bit uncertain about. Accountants wear a lot of different hats in that regard and they do a lot of different things. Most of them greatly appear to enjoy it.

As for the people who think that accountants are bad people because of things like Enron, there are always people who will do things wrong, and there are always people who will condemn others. Most accountants are very ethical people who would not adjust the numbers to make things appear as something other than what they really are. It would be wrong to assume that about an entire profession, and accountants or people who wish to study to be accountants would be wise to focus on what they want to do and not on critics who might object to it for some reason or in some form.