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Table of contents 1.Introduction 2.Ethical Dilemma 2.1 Independence 2.2 Interest of conflicts 2.3 Confidentiality 3.Sustainability 4.Conclusion 5.References

Independence of Accountant Maintaining independence is an ethical dilemma in which accountants or companies fight when they can benefit from using biased objectivity. Basic principles may be threatened if accountants do not take responsible measures to identify situations in which conflicts of interest may arise. Arthur Andersen was one of the "Big 5" accounting firms until his desire to generate profits began to conflict with their responsibilities to serve the public. While improperly auditing large companies such as Enron and WorldCom, their reputation quickly collapsed due to a lack of objectivity (Garrett, 2013). Also, according to (The former financial controller of an electronics business in Sydney’s north has admitted to stealing more than $1.6 million over an 11-year period, using an elaborate scheme which involved manipulating its payroll system to give himself extra money. Anoush Bornoush, 52, from Gordon, worked for Powerbox Australia – a family-owned business which designs and manufactures power supplies and batteries – from 2001 to 2019, starting as a finance manager before being promoted to financial controller in 2012. Several months later, when an accountant was attempting to print a payslip but could not find it in the system, she contacted the software company and was told all data prior to July 2018 had been deleted by Bornoush in December 2019. The data was restored from backups, and a forensic examination of all financial records between 2008 and 2019 showed Bornoush made numerous unauthorised payments to himself totalling $1,610,430.09 between February 2008 and December 2019. He went to elaborate lengths to disguise the payments as being legitimate, including using fake employee codes that corresponded to real people, and producing an accurate payroll document each fortnight which he slightly altered to make the payments to himself.)

In small organizations, for example, when tasks such as preparing or reviewing financial statements overlap, different conflicts occur, such as being given to one employee. Lack of independence can arise because it allows them to commit and hide financial fraud. This can have a detrimental effect on the company through worsening profits as well as tax effects caused by misrepresentation.

Domestic and international accounting standards and guidelines have been developed to outline how to solve independent dilemmas such as conflicts of interest through objectivity and professional competence as well as ethics through accounting research, but maintaining independence relies heavily on expert judgment. Therefore, this ethical dilemma should be resolved by strengthening company policies so that accountants do not take advantage of conflicts of interest. This may include strong internal control policies, especially separation of tasks, in which conflicting tasks are completed by separate employees. Betrayal of accounting independence can also destroy the principle of integrity, where prejudice or unjust influence to ignore other people's professional judgments means that accountants do not apply objectivity or professional behavior through their practices. Self-interest is a major threat to adherence to the basic principles of ethics and independence that arise when an accountant has financial or other interests that may affect his or her behavior. Familiarity with customers or employers can also cause conflicts and pose similar threats to accountants' professional behavior. In addition, threats exist when accountants are discouraged from acting objectively under the influence of management or lose the integrity of their practices. Safeguards created by the working environment as well as occupations, laws, or regulations may be introduced to eliminate or reduce the threats posed by the ethical dilemma of independence. This may include procedures to mitigate the threat of familiarity, such as the introduction of regulations on relationship formation. For example, a partner is obligated to replace an accountant after spending a certain period of time on a specific task (Allen and Siegel, 2002). Internal whistleblowing procedures can also be introduced, which is believed to be how Enron was initially exposed. It can detect unethical behavior, and in most cases preserves the integrity of the organization.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A conflict of interest can be a particularly difficult identifiable ethical issue. For example, if your senior accountants gain a bonus based on stock prices, they have the incentive consciously or unconsciously for making decisions that help raise the price of the stock, even if there is no advantages for the organization or its investors. Fo similar situations , accountants who audit financial reports of the company may follow the wisdom of the accounting industry to take their self advantages. It's not easy to identify clearly about the conflict of interest that professionals made in the company. The impact of conflicts of interest to individuals like professionals. There is a conflict between the interests of the accountant and the interests of the other parties. The similarity between the conflicts that happen in the accounting profession and the conflicts that happen in the field of legal profession. When accountants have the conflict of interests with their clients or organizations, it will cause self-transaction, which is a circumstance in which accountants who are responsible in the company that has a conflict of interest and acts for their own benefit instead of the interests of the company. Damaging the interest of clients and organization is against the ethic requirements of accountant. And accountants will be imposed punishment and sanction by law for their breach. All the accountants have the obligations, duty and sense of accountability on their job and profession to avoid the conflicts of interests. The impact of conflicts of interest to organisations. Organizations like company, always have the conflicts of interest with the accountants.Once the

conflict is happening, company need to prepare the large sum of money to against the professionals for protecting the interest of the organization. When company fail to defend their interest, there are some risk will appear in the future of company such as shortage of funds. The impact of conflicts for the reputation of the accounting profession. Avoiding the conflicts of interest is the duty of accountants, when accountant brench their responsibility and cause the conflicts with clients and organization, it is unhealthy for the development of accountant. Other fields will have the prejudice on accounting profession, and the reputation of accounting will be damaged. The impact of conflicts of interest for the public interest. When the interest of public is damaged by the some of professionals. It will cause panic among the society, and the public will lost trust on the public officials that have responsibility to performance in fair and impartial manner. The trust of community on performance processes of public officials is also the bottom base of law. If the interests public are damaged , the authority of the law will also receive unfavorable impacts. How can we deal with the conflicts of interest ? Disclosure is the one of the best solutions to resolve the conflicts issue. Revealing the relevant interests of professionals that damaged the other legal interests. Disclosure would be performed the law enforcing departments, and the target population would include professionals who have involved the conflicts of business. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3.1 Overall assessment for company – Stricter standards for economic, social and environmental information reporting Due to the economic globalization, climate change and competition for resources, achieving sustainable economic and environmental development has become a consensus all over the world. At the same time, the public is beginning to comprehensively evaluate companies in terms of their performance in ecological, social, environmental and economic aspects. Consequently, more and more corporations are paying attention to sustainable development, which requires accounting professional to play their roles. Nevertheless, accountants are simultaneously facing challenges from the development of sustainability as the traditional technique and professional communication are no longer enough. Therefore, the first challenge for accounting profession comes from the higher requirements for economic, social and environmental information reporting. According to Stanescu (2018), the environmental report provided by conventional financial system is insufficient to clearly and completely reflect the environmental influence of the company. Meanwhile, IFAC has confirmed a sustainability improvement mechanism that is directly relevant to the role of qualified accountants, which contains codes of conduct and ethics, reporting rules and the commitments and transparency of shareholders (Stanescu 2018). The discrepancies between conventional accounting and reporting and sustainable development and reporting have not been solved. Hence, the planners of accounting standards for sustainability with the purpose of coordinating information for all genres of capital used by companies (Stanescu 2018). For example, to achieve long-term value for the company, it is compulsory for accountants and management to ensure the independent auditors are capable of confirming all types of accounting information and capital concerning materiality, completeness and comparability (Stanescu 2018). Based on the evidence above, it is true that the information reported by accountant has become more complex and integrated because of sustainable development. In the matter of solutions, the first step of accounting profession is to figure out the connection between the environmental influences and corporation’s strategies, financial performance and business model (Stanescu 2018). This is because that public and community are comprehensively evaluating the business instead of merely concentrating on financial aspect. The companies with good performance in overall areas are likely to attract more external investors, which can be a predominant support for generating future economic benefits. Secondly, accountants are also responsible for verifying and combining important social and

capital issues when making decisions (Stanescu 2018). Moreover, evaluating the benefits of addressing social and environmental issues are also required (Stanescu 2018). As for economic aspects, accountant should be responsible for actively participating in decision concerning strategic and operational areas. Additionally, it is also necessary for accounting profession to abide by new market requirements, which enables corporations to achieve a sustainable strategy that ensures the durability of the business (Stanescu 2018). In specific, accountant should improve the procedure of decision-making, investigate new business opportunity and provide creative offerings and services (Stanescu 2018). In terms of the roles of accounting companies and other nongovernmental organizations, they could help accounting profession to provide social and information with higher quality through offering sustainability reporting criteria with usefulness and relevance (Stanescu 2018). ----...