Accounting Ethics Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Accounting Ethics Case - Essay Example In this case, the company’s expenses had been reported in the balance sheet as an asset. The error in turn made the company look more profitable by reducing the expenses in the income statement and increasing the assets in the balance sheets. As a result, they approached the former CFO of the company, Scott D. Sullivan, who instructed them to cover up the mistake. Fearful of losing their jobs, the two followed the instructions. The issue presented in the case of Troy Normand is one of the many ethical issues affecting employees and companies today. Other includes Ethical decision-making, governance, corporate culture, and corporate social responsibility. Employees acting on behalf of the company have an ethical duty to act in the best interest of stakeholders including being transparent. Employees finding themselves in Normand’s situation can take a number of alternative courses of actions and trade-offs. The best course of action is to act in the best interest of stakeholders by refusing to cover up the mistake and instead insist on making corrections. Increase pressure from top management is usually an indication of fraud in the company. If this does not work, an employee can resolve to whistleblowing at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), whose official name was the â€Å"Public Company Accounting Reform and Investment Protection Act of 2002†. It provides protection for whistleblowers (Spedding, pp. 289). It also imposes criminal penalties for actions taken against whistleblowers. This act recognizes that these people require protection as their careers when reporting suspected illegal activities in a company (Brenkert, pp. 600). Ethical issues are crucial to the success of any company also affects stakeholders. Major stakeholders who can be negatively affected by actions taken by employees as seen in the case of WorldCom include investors and