Abstract: At present, the fraud in the accounting field is getting worse and worse, which shakes the cornerstone of accounting integrity. How to rebuild accounting integrity and curb accounting fraud should not only strengthen the construction of laws, systems and rules, but also actively advocate the spirit of integrity and establish an accounting integrity system to improve accounting integrity.
At present, the fraud in the accounting field is getting worse and worse, which shakes the cornerstone of accounting integrity. How to rebuild accounting integrity and curb accounting fraud should not only strengthen the construction of laws, systems and rules, but also actively advocate the spirit of integrity and establish an accounting integrity system to improve accounting integrity.
The importance of accounting integrity in 1
Building an accounting credit system is an inevitable requirement of a harmonious society, and ensuring the authenticity and reliability of accounting information is the basic professional ethics and code of conduct of accounting practitioners. However, with the emergence of "Yinguangxia" incident and "Lantian Stock" incident, the phenomenon of accounting fraud and accounting information distortion has intensified. The Third Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee pointed out: "A social credit system supported by morality, based on property rights and guaranteed by law is a necessary condition for building a modern market system." If the problem of accounting integrity is not solved, its "disharmony" factors will inevitably hinder the construction of a harmonious social credit system.
2 reasons for the lack of accounting integrity
2. 1 Information asymmetry is the prerequisite for the lack of accounting integrity.
Information asymmetry means that the subjects of market economy enjoy different information. Generally speaking, the decision-makers of accounting information will directly participate in the operation and management of enterprises, control the whole process of economic activities of enterprises, and master all kinds of information within enterprises. However, most users of accounting information can not directly participate in the production and operation of enterprises, and can only rely on the information provided by accounting information producers to understand the operating conditions of enterprises, which leads to information asymmetry between accounting information producers and users, and accounting information producers may violate the principle of good faith and provide false accounting information to users.
2.2 The imperfect civil compensation mechanism and low cost of violation are the driving forces of accounting dishonesty.
In today's mature securities market, listed companies will be severely punished for information disclosure fraud, including high civil compensation, which often makes the offenders lose all their money. In China, the Securities Law stipulates the administrative responsibility and criminal responsibility of the stock issuer for failing to disclose relevant information according to relevant regulations, or for disclosing information with false records, misleading statements or major omissions, but it does not mention civil compensation, which makes it difficult for violators to be severely punished economically. It is precisely because the benefits obtained by violating the rules are far greater than the costs paid by violating the rules, which adds impetus to the criminals' "fighting the world".
2.3 The lack of independence and poor supervision of CPA audit is the direct cause of the crisis of accounting integrity.
Certified public accountants objectively need them to maintain the normal operation order of the macro-economy and protect the economic interests of the public. However, in recent years, a series of audit failures at home and abroad have disappointed us. Both Enron incident and Yinguangxia incident are related to the issue of independence. The essential feature of audit lies in its independence, which is the soul of audit. Without independence, there is no audit. The professional norms of certified public accountants require them to be independent of the audit client and the audited in form and substance, but it is very difficult to do this completely in practical work. Usually, accounting firms provide audit and accounting consulting services for the same client at the same time. Accounting firms get rich consulting income from audited units, which damages the independence of CPA's auditing business and makes accounting information distortion inevitable. 2.4 Enterprise system defects are the root cause of accounting dishonesty in China.
Most listed companies in China are restructured from state-owned enterprises. Due to the incomplete reorganization, listed companies have failed to establish an effective restraint mechanism, and there are outstanding problems in corporate governance. First, the phenomenon of "one share dominating" in state-owned enterprises is serious, and the ownership structure is unreasonable. Most listed companies in China are absolutely controlled by state-owned group companies, and the shareholders' meeting becomes a major shareholders' meeting, and the major shareholders have the final say, so it is difficult to guarantee the interests of the majority of small and medium shareholders. Second, there are defects in the board of directors and the board of supervisors. The shortcomings of the board of directors and the board of supervisors are mainly manifested in the lack of necessary mechanisms to ensure that all directors strictly abide by their obligations and safeguard the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders; Third, there are defects in internal control of listed companies. There is no real separation between listed companies and controlling shareholders in personnel, finance, assets, institutions and business, which leads to the manipulation of listed companies by major shareholders, thus causing controlling shareholders to harm the interests of listed companies and other shareholders. The defect of this company system seriously restricts the improvement of accounting information quality of listed companies in China, which is the fundamental reason for the low credibility of accounting.
3 Countermeasures for the lack of accounting integrity
3. 1 Establish an accounting credit intermediary and improve the accounting information supply system.
Establish an accounting credit intermediary to audit the supplier's integrity and the quality of accounting information, and evaluate the credit rating accordingly, so as to give the honest supplier an opportunity to show himself. Improve the accounting information supply system, including accounting information disclosure, accounting information audit and supervision of suppliers to ensure the quality of accounting information provided.
3.2 Establish a civil compensation mechanism to increase the cost of accounting dishonesty.
The purpose of establishing civil compensation mechanism is to restrain the desire of suppliers to obtain illegitimate interests. If the provider provides false accounting information and causes great losses to the users of accounting information, the users may sue the provider and demand punishment and compensation. At the same time, learn from foreign mature experience, combined with China's actual situation, revise and improve relevant laws and regulations, increase the punishment for counterfeiters, and establish a civil compensation mechanism, so that the expected cost of fraud is far greater than the income of fraud, so that counterfeiters are unprofitable, and fundamentally put an end to information fraud.
3.3 Strengthen the management of professional ethics of certified public accountants and establish integrity files.
The integrity system of certified public accountants should include: a legal and regulatory system guided by the Law of Certified Public Accountants and the Accounting Law, with independent auditing standards and accounting standards for enterprises as the core; A professional ethics education system based on China's traditional virtues and centered on the professional ethics of certified public accountants: a supervision system combining internal self-discipline with external supervision; Professional ethics management system combining inspection and guidance with file management. In order to ensure the implementation of the professional ethics of certified public accountants, we should set up full-time institutions or personnel to check the performance of professional ethics by practicing institutions and practitioners, and record the advantages and disadvantages in the integrity file as the basis for rewarding the excellent and punishing the bad, so as to improve the consciousness of certified public accountants in fulfilling the professional ethics and ensure that all work is done well.
3.4 Pay attention to the construction of accounting culture and cultivate the atmosphere of accounting integrity.
The construction of accounting culture is the basis of cultivating accounting integrity. Accounting culture mainly refers to the cultivation of accounting talents, the continuing education of accounting practitioners, the education of enterprise financial managers and other accounting-related personnel, and pays attention to the cultivation, assessment and evaluation of honesty and moral quality. In addition, it also needs to be combined with the construction of corporate integrity and personal integrity.
3.5 Improve the corporate governance structure and improve the internal accounting control system.
The construction of accounting integrity, on the basis of clear property rights, must establish a standardized corporate governance structure to effectively control and guide the behavior of operators. Corporate governance is an internal institutional arrangement to ensure the quality of accounting information. Therefore, it is necessary to establish and improve the corporate governance structure, establish a modern enterprise system with separation of government from enterprise, clear property rights, clear rights and responsibilities and scientific management, and improve the internal accounting control system of the company to standardize its financial behavior.
In a word, honesty is the cornerstone of market economy and the foundation of accounting institutions and accountants. As long as all accounting personnel truly "take honesty as the foundation, put morality first, follow the standards and do not make false accounts" and ensure the authenticity and reliability of accounting information, they will certainly be able to establish an accounting integrity environment in which information and credit are organically unified and get rid of the current accounting integrity crisis.
refer to
[1] Wang. On the causes and problems of the lack of accounting integrity [J]. Science and Technology Information,No. 1, 2009,733.
[2] Meng Xiangping, An Hong. Countermeasures to strengthen accounting integrity [J]. Shandong Commercial Accounting 2006.3,40-41.