Accountants have become “human pinatas” following recent corporate scandals, television business analyst Dierdre McMurdy said at the a recent luncheon of the Canadian Insurance Accountants Association (CIAA). While the impact of new public accounting rules, including Ontario’s Bill-213, “remain to be seen”, McMurdy is adamant. “You just can’t legislate integrity. There is a focus now on eliminating all error and battening down the hatches.” The end result could be just more paperwork for accountants, rather than a real impact on corporate behavior.
The issue of governance has been “packaged” in the jargon of disclosure, accountability and transparency, but “for all the swagger, the issue is still there”. Companies are still under investigation, the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is in a state of disarray, and “at least, if not more disturbing is the rigid, structural approach being taken” by some company boards. Fear of liability by board members “leaves you with a bunch of terrified people constantly looking over their shoulders.” n
