Business Code of Ethics

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The fundamental principles ICAN’s Code of Ethics expresses its guidance in terms of five fundamental principles. These are:

(a) integrity;

(b) objectivity;

(c) professional competence and due care

(d) confidentiality; and

(e) professional behavior.

Integrity Members should be straightforward and honest in all professional and business relationships.

Integrity implies not just honesty but also fair dealing and truthfulness.

A chartered accountant should not be associated with reports, returns, communications or other information where they believe that the information:

(a) contains a materially false or misleading statement;

(b) contains statements or information furnished recklessly; or omits or obscures information required to be included where such omission or obscurity would be misleading. Objectivity Members should not allow bias, conflicts of interest or undue influence of others to override their professional or business judgements.

A chartered accountant may be exposed to situations that may impair objectivity.

It is impracticable to define and prescribe all such situations. Relationships that bias or unduly influence the professional judgment of the chartered accountant should be avoided.

Professional competence and due care Practising as a chartered accountant involves a commitment to learning over one’s entire working life.

Members have a duty to maintain their professional knowledge and skill at such a level that a client or employer receives a competent service, based on current developments in practice, legislation and techniques.

Members should act diligently and in accordance with applicable technical and professional standards. Continuing professional development develops and maintains the capabilities that enable a chartered accountant to perform competently within the professional environments.

 

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Confidentiality;

Members must respect the confidentiality of information acquired as a result of professional and business relationships and should not disclose such information to third parties without authority or unless there is a legal or professional right or duty to disclose.

Confidential information acquired as a result of professional and business relationships should not be used for the personal advantage of members or third parties.

Professional behaviour Members must comply with relevant laws and regulations and should avoid any action which discredits the profession.

They should behave with courtesy and consideration towards all with whom they come into contact in a professional capacity.

 

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Presentation and disclosure objectives and principles

(a) To facilitate effective communication of information in financial statements, when developing presentation and disclosure requirements in Standards a balance is needed between.

(b) giving entities the flexibility to provide relevant information that faithfully represents the entity’s assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses.

(c) requiring information that is comparable, both from period to period for a reporting entity and in a single reporting period across entities.

Effective communication in financial statements is also supported by considering the following principles: a) entity-specific information is more useful than standardised descriptions, sometimes referred to as ‘boilerplate’; and b) duplication of information in different parts of the financial statement is usually unnecessary and can make financial statements less understandable.

 

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Classification a)

Classification is the sorting of assets, liabilities, equity, income or expenses on the basis of shared characteristics for presentation and disclosure purposes.

Such characteristics include—but are not limited to—the nature of the item, its role (or function) within the business activities conducted by the entity, and how it is measured. b)

Classifying dissimilar assets, liabilities, equity, income or expenses together can obscure relevant information, reduce understandability and comparability and may not provide a faithful representation of what it purports to represent. -

Offsetting Offsetting occurs when an entity recognises and measures both an asset and liability as separate units of account, but groups them into a single net amount in the statement of financial position. Offsetting classifies dissimilar items together