Ethics and Governance

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Running Head: ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Ethics And Governance
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ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Executive summary
Accounting is one of the crucial departments that every organization has. As vital as it
might be there exist quite several malpractices in the accounting procedures in most of the
Australian companies, organizations, and institutions. As it is known accounting malpractices are
one of the unethical practices, a company can practice to the customers and the society (Davis &
Welton, 2011). It is due to the unethical practices identified after several surveys in Australia that
the royal commissioner decided to release his report on the state of the country’s financial
malpractices for all financial service providers. The royal commissioner was able to list several
issues in his final report where some of them were that; in most financial institutions in Australia
service delivery have been relegated to priority number two while else customer satisfaction
needs to be the priority of every organization. The second issue that the royal commissioner was
able to identify is that there were malpractices in the rewarding procedures of the organizations.
Thirdly the royal commissioner has addressed the symmetry of information and power
between customers and entities. Finally, the commissioner discussed the effect of conflict
resulting from duty and interest, the holding entities to account. The royal commissioner then
provided strict standards that he assured to make sure are practical and that they will help in
streamlining the financial industry of Australia. Among the principles are; acting reasonably,
following and obeying the law, brokers were warned against misleading others, another standard
was the provision of fit services to all customers on an equal basis. Her final rule that the
commissioner gave was that all the financial service providers in the country should provide
reasonable services to their customers.

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ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Deontology is a theory that was introduced by Emmanuel Kant; this theory advocates for
moral obligation. Through this theory, it is true that the commissioner was trying to bring back
the nation’s financial service organization to the state of recognizing the importance of the
society within which they operate. More so the Australian CPA advocates for justice in the
financial sector. Several safeguards exist whereby as a member of the Australian CPA you are
protected when in your work if at all you have the following characters; integrity, professional
behavior, confidentiality, professional skills and due care and finally objectivity.
Introduction
The royal commission in 2017 released their final report on the misconduct cases found
to be practiced by the financial firms in the country. The report addressed the unethical practices
in the nation, recommended principles to control the industry and finally case studies of some of
the organizations in the nation. The commissioner chose for issues to address as that seemed to
be the main problem affecting the country; the areas were s follows; banking services, financial
advice, superannuation, and the insurance field. The theory of deontology has been selected to
assist in elaborating the unethical practices that the commissioner is bringing to attention. This
theory will help in breaking down the royal commissioner’s report to more acceptable content. In
the country, financial service industry several misconducts were identified. The fault included
the relegation of customer service, greed for personal gain and profit maximization. Finally, the
commissioner determined that there had been an increase in the misuse of market freedom. The
royal commissioner has recorded several set standards which will be used to streamline the
industry and also reduce unethical practices in the financial service industry in Australia.

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ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Deontology theory
Immanuel Kant charged human beings with the responsibility to be able to question the
truth of other persons. Kant framed the idea of challenging others in terms of an obligation which
is morally upright to the society and also a person’s duty to protect other person’s rights.
Through his ideology, the theory of deontology got its roots. Deontology is an ethical theory
which tries to states that the morality of an individual action should be judged on whether the
activity itself under a series of rules is right or wrong (McNaughton & Rawling, 2011). This
theory does not base the virtue of action with the result rather than on the right or wrong of the
action. This theory is mostly used to describe an obligation or duty and rule-based ethics, and
this is because set rules are used to guide and bind a person to his on duty.
This theory is a framework of ethics which majorly depends on the set rules and policies.
This theory follows the set rules to enable all the actions that occur are friendly to the
surrounding operational environment. Deontology is a rule or policy guided theory. An effect of
any manner is considered complete and morally upright if all the procedures and regulations set
were followed to the latter. Deontology supports simple principles such as; do not lie, never steal
and avoid at any point to cheat (Paquette, Sommerfeldt & Kent, 2015). This is the most
straightforward ethical theory for people to follow as it only requires following on the set rules
and regulations. The approach is a clear definition of what is moral and unethical as the ruling
will be based on a written or available set rule.
From the royal commission final report, it is clear that the commissioner was so much
concerned about the failure of a financial institution to follow the set rules and guidelines. The
commissioner lists down several unethical practices which reflect the inability to obey