A survey among members of professional accounting bodies in the UK and Ireland has found that, over the past three years, more than a quarter (27%) felt they had been put under pressure to act in an unethical way.
Key findings from the survey, which was designed to take the ethical temperature of the accountancy profession in the UK and Ireland before and during the pandemic, are depicted below.
The most cited forms of pressure were:
- excessive optimism in budgets, business cases, cashflow forecasts and plans
- downplaying risks in budgets, business cases, cashflow forecasts and plans
- categorising personal expenses incurred by employees, directors and shareholders as company expenses
- ‘getting around’ local policies and regulations.
