Question

When dealing with issues such as professional ethics, the stakes can be high. This is why such care is taken to painstakingly clarify terms such as integrity and independence in the AICPA Professional Code of Conduct, as they could otherwise be open to interpretation. In this week's discussion, you will find illustrative examples of these key principles to share and discuss with your peers.

First, review the terms and definitions identified in the "Principles of Professional Conduct" section of the preamble to the AICPA Professional Code of Conduct. Select one of the principles (e.g., responsibilities, public interest, integrity, objectivity and independence, due care, or scope and nature of services) and research a current event that demonstrates that principle being threatened or otherwise not adhered to. (This does not need to be a case strictly about accounting—it could be any relevant business scenario. If you have trouble finding a current event, you can create a hypothetical scenario related to your final project business.)

Answer 1

First of all thanks for such interesting question :D

The AICPA Professional Code of Conduct updated for consideration this week is an in-depth collection of professional codes / ethics to which all representatives of such (unemployed, retired) industry, public practice or affiliates will comply. As our reading also states, "the guidelines provide the basis for the rules governing the execution of their professional responsibilities" ("Professional Code of Conduct," n.d.)

A relevant scenario can be found in recent news with companies failing to protect consumer privacy / data for the principals I selected to focus on (due care, public interest), which may also be related to due diligence.

Recent or current event which threatened was

A major violation of privacy that I conclude breaches the values of due care and public interest is one that has harmed millions of consumers as a result of the purchase of Starwood Hotels by Marriot Hotels in 2016. Marriot had to announce rapidly until the end of 2018 that during their finalization period with Starwood hotels

We went out consciously how Starwood was compromised by cyber attacks dating back to 2014 which revealed highly sensitive private customer information.(Pollard, 2018) According to a supporting report quote denouncing Marriott's and Starwood's actions, ' a rigorous cyber security due diligence initiative should have detected the server and network security vulnerabilities the attackers exploited

The obvious deficiencies of Starwood in due care, in combination with the shortcomings of Marriot's lack of due diligence auditing Starwood's current cyber security threats adequately, should have been partly handled with strong disclosure expectations of completion. This is a growing issue that the vital responsibility of protecting consumers on their watch is failing for companies. A prime example is the absence of due care in signing off on the bottom lines by the Chairman and Legal Officers to finalize transactions like this. Negligence in cyber security, though, will only appear to be an unfortunate reality.

When I conclude that transparency under the AICPA Professional Code of Conduct may be more justified

I will be happy if you give me a nice credit for my sincere effort to answer your valuable question

For any further doubts please comment . Thank you :)