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The Accounting Profession and its Obligations to Society
Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting
Topic D Review
Due: Thursday 14 April 2006
Sophie Lindsay
87864
Over the last decade or so the credibility of the accounting profession has taken some
major hits. Enron, WorldCom, and the Australian HIH Insurance case are just a few
examples where the executives of corporations have served their own self interest while
leaving the stakeholders and society to cop the blow. So how can the accounting profession
safeguard against these huge corporations destroying their credibility? Will there have to
be a major shift towards accountants being ultimately responsible to society as well as the
common stakeholder?
Without the corporation evolving into the giant capital raising tool, the modern industry
would never have developed so tremendously. It is this notion though, which has
transformed share ownership from a responsibility into simply a transfer of wealth in the
hope of a buck or two in return. Shareholders "œown the company, but as there are often
hundreds of thousands of shareholders to any one company
