Chartered accountants should maintain high ethical standards: Gurumurthy

Chennai:

Noted economist and chartered accountant S Gurumurthy on Tuesday urged chartered accountants to maintain high ethical standards and said the profession needs to cultivate intellectual content.

Speaking during a Chartered Accountant council meeting here, he expressed concern over the deterioration of ethics during the last three elections to the councils and regional councils of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and lamented that there is no collective approach on what the profession should do.

While highlighting the bar council elections of lawyers, the ICAI elections deterioration in the last 20 years has been steep as the chartered accountants have become more materialistic than professionals.

He said there has been no discussion on how to handle this situation while urging the need for a group of chartered accountants to bring in a change in the system.

He said that chartered accountant is an intelligent profession but the profession failed to cultivate intellectual content.

He also rued that rules are being framed but are not being followed and added that the profession seeks a role model.

Interestingly, the elections to the council and regional councils of ICAI is three days away and there were also some complaints of midnight smses by some members. Members also rued the lack of standard of ethics during the election campaign.