Fighting fraud: with the California CPA education foundation's fraud in audit, accounting and tax conference taking place June 25 in Burbank and June 26 in San Francisco, we offer some fraud tips to whet your appetite.

• Position: Focusing the Profession - Conference news

What should you do if you suspect fraud?

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos has renewed debate about work responsibilities and ethical duties. The decision, which denies constitutional protection to public employees who have whistle-blower duties as part of their jobs, is bound to have an effect on others, like CPAs, who are often expected to blow the whistle on behavior they consider suspicious.

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The court's decision is limited to public employees, but sets a precedent for other work-related cases. One of the main points of the decision is that if a job description includes whistle-blowing duties, the performance of those duties is to be evaluated without the constitutional protections of free speech. In other words, people need to exercise more care when speaking as part of their work duties than when speaking as citizens; they need to be sure their whistle-blowing is not misguided or doing more harm than good.

For CPAs who are expected to act as whistle-blowers when performing audits and other attestations, the message appears to be "exercise even more care" when deciding what to do in ethical conflicts. This is small comfort to CPAs. who must meet public expectations and jury standards that are often higher than professional standards.

Jury or claims standards are created by juries assessing situations with the benefit of hindsight, as every claim and trial takes place after the fact. For example, CPAs are expected to:

* Protect the public interest and "get it right;"

* Exhibit CPA-like behavior (e.g. credible, objective and knowledgeable) in their actions;

* Advise clients of all significant matters, especially risk and how to avoid it;

* Uncover fraud...