As finance professionals navigate the ever-changing world of business, it is a given that they must deeply understand the importance of ethics in their profession.
In an interview with Susan Muldowney from INTHEBLACK, Belinda Zohrab-McConnell, CPA Australia's regulation and standards lead, talks on understanding potential ethical issues.
For Zohrab-McConnell, ethics are always important, but there should be a focus on it ebbs and flows depending on events, as recent tax leaks obviously brought professional behaviour and lack of confidentiality to the fore.
"However, we should always be highly attuned to ethical situations. Brand reputation is so important – your personal brand, your employer brand and the accounting profession’s brand," Zohrab-McConnell says.
For the CPA Australia regulation and standards lead, there are five key fundamental principles of the profession: integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, and professional behaviour.
She believes these are central tenets of the APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, the starting point for understanding your ethical responsibilities.
As to the common areas of mistakes in terms of ethics, Zohrab-McConnell says as opposed to the prescriptive rules of accounting regulation or tax legislation, ethical dilemmas can be subjective. She thinks it is important to know professional competence and due care limits.
"We used to call it 'staying in your lane', but sometimes it is difficult to know the margins of your lane."
In addition, professional development is key to keeping up to date and understanding the margins, so is sound self-reflection.
She adds that it is much, much harder to do the right thing, as it takes a concerted effort to make sure you are always adhering to ethical principles, but that is part of being a professional. "What we give in paying attention to ethics, we get back in professional recognition and career advancement," she notes.
"A huge area of the ethical focus, which involves numerous members of the policy and advocacy team, concerns ethical and professional accountability in the profession, particularly in the tax, audit and consulting spaces," Zohrab-McConnell explains.
