Research On Integrity And Credit-Worthiness Of Certified Public Accountants

"Integrity" and "Credit-Worthiness" is an essential element for a Certified Public Accountant ("CPA"). Their conducts are importantly manifested on how to observe the Auditing Professional Ethics. Along with the exposure of a series of malpractice and fraudulent acts, there was a great concern on the Ethics problems of both CPAs and the accounting firms.In this Paper, the author selects two cases to study and analyze the reasons for the decline of integrity and credit-worthiness. One of the major impacts is due to the change of economic environment in recent years which greatly increase the market competition. For pursuing more benefits, CPAs would even give up their independence and duty of care while carrying out their duties. Accordingly, they make sham and false audit report, obtain client's reward, or even simplify audit program out of low audit fees. Besides, the development of non-audit business by the accounting firms is also significantly affected CPA's independence. Furthermore, the incomplete of the existing management and control system has mitigated the extent to penalize the law-breakers.Finally, the author recommends some measures to improve CPA's integrity and credit-worthiness. For instance, strengthen the industrious supervising system, improve the penalty system, build up and develop an environment with good ethics, as well as share information and experience with international accounting bodies. To maintain a positive CPA's image and to function as a market economical supervisor should be based on integrity and credit-worthiness.