A JOURNEY THROUGH ETHICS IN ROMANIAN ACCOUNTANCY

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the ethical and moral profile of accountants in Romania, as a further step in understanding the adapting of the accountants’ profile to the evolution of the profession in the context of an accounting system that “went through complex accounting reforms of more than two decades” (Mustață et al., 2011). The paper researched on studies focused on accountants’ ethics from different perspectives like ethics in education, ethics in codes of ethics, perception of ethics between men and women in different cultures. Since an individual’s personality is shaped within family primarily by behaviors of parents, responses indicated that family life plays a key role in the development of ethics awareness. Ethics is not part of curricula during university studies in accountancy in countires like Iran, where there were differences revealed in ethical standards according to gender as females have stronger religious beliefs and males are more egoistic than females. About ethics in the codes, the study questioned if the code of ethics is protecting the public interest or serving the private interests of the profession? Various literature states that responsibility of an accountant should be more than satisfying the needs of an individual and should meet the “public interest”. In Romania, the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR) was established in 1921 and supports and promotes high quality professional practices through special concern for the competence, aptitudes and ethics of those involved in the profession. Due to its fundamental commandments, CECCAR provides quality assurance of the services supplied by its members, guarantees initial education and continuous development of the professional accountants, oversees knowledge and application of ethics and the deontological conduct of the professional accountants. This work is a qualitative study, based on the review of the relevant literature, blended with a research based on semi-structured interviews with several Romanian professionals. Our conclusion is that perseverance in applying the professions’ principles and the professionalism are key factors in maintaining ethics level.