BKD, Moss Adams aim to ensure high ethical tone throughout firms.
By Rick Telberg
for the Journal of Accountancy
Moss Adams LLP in Seattle and BKD LLP in Springfield, Missouri, are striking out for a new frontier in CPA firm management—formal ethics oversight. Their approaches differ—Moss Adams hired a single individual to act as an independent ethics officer, and BKD formed an advisory council of independent experts. But the aim is the same: to ensure the high ethical tone at the top of the firms is filtering through the organizations to clients and the public.
Robert L. Bunting, Moss Adams chairman and incoming AICPA chairman of the board, and William E. Fingland Jr., BKD managing partner, were at the AICPA’s New York offices for an Institute strategic planning committee meeting. The two firms, which are among the ten largest in the United States, had just issued a press release on their newly instituted oversight programs, and the Journal of Accountancy wanted to learn more about what prompted them to take this step and how they envisioned the process working.
Rick Telberg, editor at large, led the discussion with Bunting and Fingland.
Here are the questions:
-- Why introduce a formal ethics oversight function just now?
-- Are CPAs uniquely positioned at this point in history to be the ethical guides to corporate America?
-- You’ve each chosen different routes on how to approach this within your firms. Let’s compare and contrast.
-- How do your partners like it?
-- Both firms already had internal quality control functions set up. Does this take the place of that?
-- How has the community of clients, prospects and the public reacted to what you’re doing?
-- So what exactly will this public interest council at BKD and this independent observer at Moss Adams be doing with their time?
-- What resources and recourses do these entities have?
-- Are the council members independent in the way a CPA would understand independence?
-- Does the council have the power to go public—to resign, for example, with a press release?
-- How do you deal with the issue of liability? Do they have something similar to directors and officers (D&O) insurance?
-- Do the council members and the observer meet the clients?
-- Are you setting, in effect, a new standard for other CPA firms?
-- What kind of questions should CPA firms ask when they hear about this initiative?
-- What would you like to see come out of these initiatives for your firms, your clients, the public and the profession? How will the world be a different or a better place because of this effort?
For the answers and the full article, click here.
