Do the right thing: balancing client wants, public's needs.

• Author: Ascierto, Jerry
• Position: Cover Story

IT'S INTANGIBLE, AMORPHOUS AND hard to pin down. It's a CPA's primary concern, yet most struggle just to define the term. If ignored, it holds the potential of derailing the entire profession.

The public trust.

The meaning of upholding the public trust has been a source of much debate in the accounting profession since the Enron bankruptcy and the chain of high profile corporate collapses that followed.

"The integrity of accountants was always unquestioned," says Zaf Iqbal, a CPA and Cal Poly accounting professor. "Now, we have become the butt of jokes, and my students are confused. What I tell them is, this may be a blessing in disguise. That we, as a profession, are going to emerge stronger."

TAKING IT PERSONALLY

Spelled out in the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, a CPA accepts "an obligation of self-discipline above and beyond the requirements of laws and regulations," and promises "an unswerving commitment to honorable behavior; even at the sacrifice of personal advantage."

Integrity is defined as "the element of character fundamental to professional recognition ... the quality from which the public trust derives."

Accountants are uniquely positioned between business and professional tensions. "It's the only profession where you're paid by someone and you're supposed to protect the public from that someone," says Ira Gelfman, a Santa Rosa-based sole practitioner.

Further, says Hal Schultz, co-chair of CalCPA's Government Relations Committee, "a profession has at its heart the protection of the public trust. But an industry has as its goal to maximize its profit.

"When people come to a CPA, they expect an unbiased judgment and integrity," he says. But in light of the recent scandals, the integrity of the profession "has got to be defended every day, by asking the tough questions, tackling the difficult problems and making the right decisions, and that takes courage."

If a CPA doesn't believe that the profession holds one to a higher standard, "then I don't think all the ethics codes in the world are going to do us much good," says Mary Beth Armstrong, an ethics professor in the accounting department at Cal Poly. "We need to rekindle in our profession this sense that we are part of something larger than ourselves."

DIFFICULT CHOICES

The business and professional aspects of being a CPA "will always be in tension; they always have, and always will," says Armstrong. "If we can't maintain that balance, if we put the business interests first, then we aren't a profession anymore."

To become an auditor, for example, one must take on certain responsibilities. Standing up to clients when you believe they want to do something improper is the lay of the land. "And if that means getting fired, to me that's part of the job," Armstrong says.

John Moorlach, Orange County's treasurer and tax collector, found out the hard way what upholding the public trust means. When campaigning for his post, Moorlach noticed that the county's portfolio "looked more like a hedge fund than a municipal...