Question

As a consumer of accounting services, what laws should be put in place to protect the public? why?

Answer 1

Answer.

Consumer Protection:

This refers to the act of providing safeguards to buyers. It is aimed at ensuring that the buyer is not manipulated in any way by the seller. Consumer protection laws have been put in place to sensitize the public on the importance of conducting ethical and legal business.

The laws that need to be put in place include:

• Restriction of unqualified accountants. There should be laws and regulations put in place to restrict inexperienced and unprofessional accountants in the industry. There are cases where the accountants that are not qualified are confirmed to provide accounting services. For this reason, there should be strict regulations put in place to ensure that only fully qualified accountants are approved. The public should access information regarding the expertise of a given accountant. This will enable consumers to receive professional services.
• The law regarding the validity of accounting reports. Although the accounting reports follow many standards, there are instances that such reports may not be reliable, even after an auditor's reports assurance. Therefore, for this reason, there should be laws put in place to ensure that reports of an organization are valid or not. Before the reports are released to the public for consumption, there should be a final process put in place to verify and validate the reports. This would protect the public from false accounting reports and poor accounting services.
• Verification and authentication of accountants. Apart from the professional bodies, there should be other laws that verify the authenticity of accountants right from college. This is for the reason that many accountants fraudulently graduated from college and are now confirmed as professional accountants. There should be laws to ensure that only genuine accountants exist in the industry who would provide quality services to the consumer.