WHY GOOD ACCOUNTANTS DO BAD AUDITS

The Article on Why Good Accountants Do Bad Audits specifies the different reasons why accountants and auditors have taken part – consciously and unconsciously – in different accounting scandals. The signing of the Sarbanes – Oxley Act of 2002 wishes to achieve corporate accountability. But the signing of this act doesn’t guarantee that accountants and auditors will not feed on their unconscious self – serving bias.

Unconscious bias, unlike conscious corruption, would be hard to prove to court and serve jail time. That’s why as accountants and auditors who want to restore the confidence of the public in the accounting profession, we should go beyond the provisions of the Sarbanes – Oxley Act and apply practices that recognize the existence of bias and minimize its effects. There are three aspects of accounting that create opportunities for bias and influence judgment: Interpreting information in