PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS’ ETHICS IN THE CONTEXT OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

National Code of Ethics of the accounting profession in Romania establishes the rules of conduct and formulates the basic principles that must be followed to achieve common goals. Professional accountants in Romania operate in different entities and branches of the national economy as freelancers or employed personnel; however, the basic goal of the Code of Ethics must always be respected. Sometimes the duty of members to their profession and to society may seem to conflict with their immediate interest or their duty of loyalty to the employer. Based on this framework, it is up to accounting bodies based on membership to develop ethical requirements for their members in order to ensure the highest quality of accounting activity and maintain public’s confidence in the accounting profession. According to the Code of Ethics developed by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the hallmark of accounting profession is taking responsibility for public interest and not necessarily satisfying the individual requirements of each employer or client. Public interest can be defined as the collective welfare of the community and accounting bodies served by the professional accountant based on his reliance, integrity and objectivity. For accounting professionals joining the accounting profession ethical principles and values provide sufficient reasons for guild solidarity and defending the common interests of the accounting profession, and the need for performance and competition by fair methods means, at the same time, accepting competition with rules and principles and assessing its results while ensuring the unity and uniqueness in the accounting profession. For any corporate governance, the capital of public trust is particularly important since confidence is a goal that is hard to win, and harder to preserve and easy to lose.