Title: The conflict between public interest and self-interest in public accounting

Authors: Chunhui Liu

Addresses: Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, P.O. Box: 127788, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Abstract: The accounting profession has long been accused for having conflicts of interest between the protections of the public's interest and the protection of their own interest. As non-audit services generate increasing proportion of revenue for public accounting firms from organisations they audit, the concern deepens. Scandals like Enron and WorldCom prompted the passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act in the USA in 2002. This paper discusses the importance and limitations of the accounting profession's code of conduct and the SOX Act in face of reputation damages to the accounting profession from conflicts of interest.

Keywords: public interest; conflicts of interest; accounting monopoly; institutional theory; Enron; Arthur Andersen LLP; SOX Act; code of conduct; self-interest; public accounting.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSS.2015.070690

International Journal of Services and Standards, 2015 Vol.10 No.3, pp.103 - 115

Received: 15 Jan 2015
Accepted: 24 Mar 2015
Published online: 19 Jul 2015 *

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