State Board ReportSeptember 2011The rate of enforcement actions taken against CPAs by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy (TSBPA) decreased significantly during the same period that ethics education has been mandatory in the state, a team of Baylor University researchers reported. Writing in the July/August 2011 issue of Today’s CPA, Kathy Hurtt and C. William Thomas state: “After five years of implementation experience, licensed CPAs in Texas have a relatively positive impression of the impact of a mandatory three-hour college ethics course on their careers.” However, they also found: “Practicing CPAs in Texas have a somewhat less positive impression as to the effectiveness of the mandatory two-year ethics update. They cite excessive frequency, redundancy and irrelevance of subject matter as contributing factors.” Professors Hurtt and Thomas received completed questionnaires from 2,696 individuals licensed between 2005 and 2010 (a 28.3 per cent response rate). When the professors asked respondents to comment on why the number of enforcement actions had dropped besides the required ethics course, several issues were cited:
The authors conclude that their study proves that ethics education can have a positive impact on individuals even if it is obtained after their childhood. They write: “It is also a testimony to the courage of the TSBPA in implementing such a requirement, in the face of what was, at the time, rather formidable opposition from both the practicing and academic branches of the profession.” |
Related NewsFull Issue |
- MEMBER CENTER
- EXAMS
- CPA Exam Credit Extension
- NTS Extensions
- Continuous Testing Overview and Status Map
- CPA Exam
- International Qualification Examination (IQEX)
- CPA Australia
- Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ)
- Instituto Mexicano de Contadores Publicos (IMCP)
- Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)
- South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)
- Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI)
- CPA Canada (CPAC)
- NASBA International Evaluation Services
- Exam News
- Products and Services
- LICENSURE
- EDUCATION