The Need for Ethics in Financial Audit

Author:Professor Eugeniu ŢURLEA, Ph. D., Eugen Gh. NICOLĂESCU, Ph. D., Mihaela MOCANU, Ph. D. Student

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Keywords:financial audit, profession, professionalism, pressures, ethics

Abstract:
Professional ethics is a present-day topic of discussion, not only in financial audit, but also in other professions. However, is there actually a need for ethics in financial audit? The present paper aims at answering this question and at bringing in solid arguments in favor of the need for ethics in this profession. For this purpose, the paper presents the general characteristics of a profession and emphasizes the tight connection between ethics and professionalism. Then, the features of the audit profession, which make ethics necessary, are discussed. Moreover, the main pressures generated by the social contract and by the auditor-auditee contract are discussed, as well as the conflicts that exist in the audit environment. The discourse thus constructed leads to a clear conclusion: the audit profession cannot be separated from ethics.\r\n

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