The CIMA Leadership Forum held at the Shangri La Hotel recently, discussed, issues of ethics for management accountants, whereas the speakers and institute called on society to create changes to help the ethical conduct in society.
CIMA Sri Lanka Country Network and Head Strategic Business Development, Manohari Abeyesekera said “We need to have our integrity intact.
In today’s corporate environment we are under so much pressure. You may have to sacrifice your integrity to safeguard your job.
In that line, we have requested CIMA to come up with a hotline. Whenever a member is in distress we should be able to guide these members to ensure that our ethics and integrity is not compromised.”
She added “We speak of corporate governance. So many words in glossy annual reports but when it comes to practice it is a different world. In that light management accountants, we have to pay our role in society.”
Presidents Counsel Knang Isvaran said “Any negligent act is not inherently unlawful. It is unlawful only when it occurs in circumstances that the law recognizes and making it unlawful. Unlike in the case of a positive act causing physical harm which is presumed to be unlawful a negligent misstatement of a professional is unlawful only if it occurs in circumstances that the law regards as it has a legal duty.”
Isvaran said the law uses a test to determine whether a negligent act is unlawful. Isvaran said, “Where a reasonable person would have not only foreseen the harm but would also have acted to avert.”
A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties. Isvaran said, “fiduciary obligates the accountant to take reasonable care of the documents entrusted by the client. Not to disclose confidential information and not to make a secret profit of the information given.”
Isvaran said that Sri Lankan law which was developed on Roman-Dutch Law does not have a special act dealing with accountants. He said the companies act however is applicable. He said “in Sections 154 to 165 shows the statutory duties set out to law. In section 162 the auditor of the company shall in carrying out his duties as an auditor shall ensure that his judgment is not impaired by a reasonable relationship with or interest in the company. Section 163, the auditor’s report, he shall develop a report to the shareholders and will state if they (financial statements) give a true and fair view of the matters to which they relate and if they do not, the aspects to which they fail to do so.”
State Minister of Finance Eran Wickremeratne said “We must all agree that if we are going to change things, we must all get together. If I can say something about politicians if you are a member of parliament and you serve in the cabinet of the country, you should not have business interests.”
He added “We must all agree that the state minister of finance cannot appoint his children or his brothers and sisters into any government position which comes under the ministry of finance. If you don’t put the pressure none of this is going to change.”
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