The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountant currently works on a new revision of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. The main innovation of the document will be clarification of the admissible limits of additional incentives for auditors and professional accountants that they can obtain from their clients, and those which can be can be presented by them to the customer. It should be reminded that the Code of Ethics of Professional Accountants strictly prohibits any incentives that may affect the behaviour of both the auditor and his client.
The updated Code will clearly identify the forms of incentives faced by auditors and professional accountants during the conduct of their activities, as well as how to behave when receiving incentives or their presentation.
At the same time, the document does not prohibit gifts in general. The purpose of the Code is to teach auditors and professional accountants to assess the risks of violating ethical principles and not to accept or offer gifts that affect the decision-making process by participants in the audit process.
“Gifts, the purpose of which is the impact on the behaviour of the auditor or his/her client, may hinder the honest work of the auditor. Under certain circumstances, further encouragement is a manifestation of corruption and bribery. Our task is to make such situations impossible and to give auditors and professional accountants a clear algorithm for action, in the event of doubtful proposals” - Stavros Thomadakis, chairman of the International Ethics Standards Board, says. He also added that the work on improving the Code of Ethics of Professional Accountants was carried out with the assistance of the international anti-corruption organization Transparency International.