Ethics and the auditor

Ethics and the Auditor

Looking around you, anyone can see the clear financial mess that is in front of us. Currently, the United States has proven an economically vulnerable country. The value of the American dollar has steadily decreased, and many people find themselves trying to make sense of an unstable economic time. It is getting harder and harder to practice ethical behavior in a modern context, however, as doing such can have a negative impact on one's financial standing in such an unstable world.

Still, it is important to retain a strong sense of ethics in today's world. It is important for any family to have a strong sense of ethics, considering that many of these families pass down lessons through ethical lessons that are learned by a child. Ethical behavior comes from adherence to elements of certain moral codes and standards that aim to protect and benefit the lives of the modern people. As such, ethical behavior is a behavior that produces the greatest good. This is the aim of most ethical behavior, as it aims to help provide good to the actor and those around him or her.

In accounting, that greatest good can often be clouded. There are many individual interests that can step into the equation that makes the situation biased to a certain extent. Yet, this becomes an incredibly intricate issue when dealing with large amounts of money and funding within an organization or a group of organizations. Ethical accounting becomes important because it is an accounting style that fails to be tempted by the lure of recording accounting principles falsely or misleadingly for personal gain. Most of the case in such situations ethical accounting requires that individuals disclose the appropriate number for their annual income. Ethical accounting is when an individual, group, or company, does not lie about making less or more than they actually did as to satisfy some stock holder or investor promise. Such accounting is accounting from a purely realistic and numerical perspective, having nothing to do with what those numbers would signify in the context of life within the larger society.

All accountants must swear by a strict code of ethics, yet auditors have a unique experience which places them in an even more sensitive position, calling for even more attention to ethical accounting behavior. Auditors have to deal with laboriously examining the financial records of a particular individual or organization. Often times, the auditor may already come with a bias, because there is a need for an audit based on some financial misgiving or mistake on a tax report or other important financial document. Still, it is the ethical responsibility of the auditor to remain objective and provide an unbiased service that allows for the proper examination and evaluation of financial duties and responsibilities without placing individuals or organizations under particular pressure from scrutiny over their financial well-being. The auditor faces his or her own unique set of ethical challenges. Thy must provide objectivity and security in a situation which may already be vulnerable to judgment by other elements of society. Moreover, auditors must be accountable for their judgments they make in regards to evaluation of individual and group financial records. As such, it is important for responsibility and accountability to be part of ethical financial behavior.