Advertising and Other Forms of Solicitation, Research Paper Example

A CPA has been asked by a client to evaluate various commercial service bureaus and recommend a particular service bureau for processing the client’s accounting records. Several partners in the CPA’s firm have a material interest in one of the service bureaus under consideration.

Rule 101 – independence (2013) states that a CPA member should be independent in the performance of their professional accounting services as necessitated by standards and principles created by accounting as well as auditing bodies of regulation. As such, the independence of the CPA, in this case, is impaired since several partners in the CPA firm holds a material interest in service under consideration. This raises the questions of objectivity when they perform services to bureaus under consideration. Besides, bias and prejudice may influence their integrity, judgment, and independence. The dilemma, in this case, takes two dimensions. One, CPA firm can dispose of material interest. This act will re-instill independence; hence, their judgment will be objective and unbiased. Secondly, CPA with material interest should make a public declaration and assure that they will adhere to professional standards and principles when providing their services.

A CPA, a staff member, plans to submit her resume to another firm. In her resume, as an indication of her auditing experience, she is considering listing the names of several non-public companies for which she has performed audits.

The ethical issue is naming audit clients in the resume, and it is described in Rules of Conduct: Rule 301 – Confidential client information. This rule holds that a CPA member in public practice should not disclose any private or confidential information without the client’s consent. However, the ruling made on Rule – 391.7.14 – revealing the names of the clients, states that it is permissible for a member to disclose or publish client’s name without their consent unless such disclose contains a release of private or confidential information (McAllister & Cripe, 2008).

References

AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. (2013). Rule 101-Independence.Retrieved from http//:www.aicpa.org on 27 November 2014.

AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. (2013).Rule 502-Advertising and other forms of solicitation. Retrieved from http//:www.aicpa.org on 27 November 2014.

McAllister, B., & Cripe, B. (2008). Improper release of proprietary information. The CPA Journal, 78(3), 52.