Return to confidence

Canadian business leaders have regained confidence in public accounting firms, according to a recent survey by Compas research.

In the June 2004 poll, Canadian CEOs and other executives rated the ethics of accounting firms much higher than in a similar survey in July 2002, a week after news of the WorldCom scandal broke. In this year’s survey, 70% of respondents had confidence (rated five, six or seven out of seven) in the ethics of accounting or auditing firms doing the books of publicly traded companies. This compares with 37% in July 2002 and 57% in January 2002.  

While the results are positive, the survey suggests there is still room for improvement. For example, 46% of those included in the 70% gave accounting firms of publicly traded companies a five out of seven. Of the remaining 24%, 20% rated public accounting firms as a six out of seven and only 4% rated them as a seven.

One finding that remained constant each time the survey was conducted is the rating of the ethics of the accounting or auditing firm hired by the respondent’s organization. Ratings of these firms were high in all three surveys, with more than 90% indicating they were confident in their accounting/auditing firm.

John Tabone is CICA's manager of innovation