Ethical practices of accountants in Davao City

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine ethical practices of accountants in Davao City. In order to determine their practices, the researcher determined their level of practices on integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behavior. Likewise, the study predicted what variables discriminates high ethical practitioners from the other group (moderate and low) when categorized accordingly. Moreover, the study determined the characteristics of the respondents in terms of age, gender, sector belong and work experience. Data revealed that the level of ethical practice among accountants in Davao City is high in all five (5) indicators which work in favor with the Professional Accountants Code of Ethics. The respondent’s level of ethical practices is the same regardless of their profile. Integrity, professional competence and due care, and professional behavior are the variables considered to discriminate the high practitioners from moderate practitioners and low practitioners after stepwise discriminant analysis. This means that the three identified variables are the variables that separate high practitioners from the other groups. The model D = -7.724 + 1.893Integrity + 2.749 Professional competence and due care + 1.553 professional behavior has been derived to predict value of discriminating variables. It is therefore imperative that practicing accountants must give some focus on those variables so that they can improve their level of ethical practice in their chosen profession. The researcher recommends that first, a strong emphasis on accounting ethics must be instilled while the accountants are still studying. Accounting Institutions therefore must enhance their curriculum that will help future accountants to be more cautious in dealing with ethical dilemma. They must focus on enhancing integrity, professional competence and due care, and professional behavior. The reason for these is to provide sustainability on the good practices of the accountants. Second, Governing body for Accountants must regularly provide training and seminars on proper work ethics to help practicing accountants to be aware of their role both in the public and private sector. These are to instill within the system of the accountants that doing negative practices will really result into negative consequences.

Keywords: Ethics, accountancy, inferential, discriminant analysis, certified public accountants, Davao City