Ethics

In this week’s reflection paper I would like to shed some light on the a few concepts we discussed in the class, myopia, and moral development. Issues such has ethical myopia is a very common pitfall that I encounter on a regular basis. Due to the nature of my job as an auditor, I am constantly facing ethical situations and I have to abide by all the rules as a duty of care is owed to the shareholders. However even after strict standards set by the governing body, there are still areas where myopic view sets in order to save time and finish the engagement as soon as possible.

Being a part of the audit team it is important that along with proving an opinion on the client’s financial statement we also have to finish the audit in a timely manner. During the busy season, there is a constant pressure from the partners that we wrap up the audit as soon as possible. As such in order to align with the partners wishes the team including myself will cut corners in certain areas. This was accomplished especially in control testing by choosing samples that are less complicated, carrying forward information from previous years working papers and making no effort in order to improve the file. Although this practice did not create any complications in the audit as the risk was covered off by auditors performing substantive testing later on. However, practicing the aforementioned approach often bothered me as the approach was quite myopic as it did no consider the affected party, by cutting corners during control testing will often lead to access work for my colleagues performing the financial audits. The practice is still performed as due to the substantive size of the audit file it becomes extremely difficult to identify where the corners were cut.

Working at a big accounting firm also lead to issues such as the recording of billable hours, as such the budget for an engagement is set before the audit begins and sometimes due to unforeseeable circumstances and