Auditors' Responsibility for Detecting Fraud

Putting Ethics and Morality First

Richard H. Kravitz, MBA, CPA

The public accounting profession has been held virtually blameless for its role in the events that led up to the recent global financial meltdown—which, to many, seemed to be a “crisis with countless victims but no perpetrators” (Francesco Guerrera, “Crisis with Countless Victims but No Perpetrators,” Financial Times, November 15, 2010). The destruction of wealth in excess of over $30 trillion has resulted in permanent losses for some and a decade of recovery for others. Some might characterize these failures as the breakdown of ethics and morality within the profession (William Stephens, Carol Vance, and Loyd S. Pettegrew, “Embracing Ethics and Morality: An Analytic Essay for the Accounting