In 2006, the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB), an independent standard-setting board of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) released an information paper entitled Approaches to the Development and Maintenance of Professional Values, Ethics and Attitudes...

The Defining Issues Test (DIT), developed by Rest (1986), measures a person's level of moral development using hypothetical social dilemmas. Although the DIT is useful for measuring moral development in social settings, it might not adequately capture an individual's moral judgement abilities in...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the accountability structures and the management relationships of internal audit. In particular, related issues such as the predominant internal audit objectives and the related functions, the extent to which internal audit addresses any...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the profile of internal audit in five Asia-Pacific countries and investigate the usage and compliance with the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) International Standards for the Professional Practices of Internal Auditing...

The increasing significance of ethics in the accounting profession is evidenced by the seminal events that witnessed the collapse of major corporations (e.g. Enron and WorldCom); regulatory interventions (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the USA and the CLERP 9 Act in Australia); and calls for...

The National Australia Bank (NAB), one of Australia's largest banks, announced losses in 2004 of AUD$360 million due to unauthorised foreign currency trading activities by four employees who incurred and deceptively concealed the losses. The NAB had in place risk limits and supervision to...

Purpose – This study aims to critically analyse the independence of the internal audit function through its relationship with management and the audit committee. Design/methodology/approach – Results are based on a critical comparison of responses from questionnaires sent out to Australian...