The Life and Writings of Stuart Chase (1888–1985): From an Accountant's Perspective

With the various scandals and frauds which have bedevilled the accounting profession in recent years, Dean Neu and Duncan Green could not have better timed the launch of their book. The title of the book reflects the central theme that the authors pursue doggedly throughout their analysis of the various crises with which the profession in Canada and many other countries has had to cope. This tension between, on the one hand, offering a service to the public and, on the other, providing a profitable living for the profession’s members is not easily resolved. In the light of corporate scandals, it is often suggested that practitioners are incapable of placing the public interest above their own private interest and that the only way to deal with professional malfeasance is through greater government regulation. The authors, however, accept that regulation via this route has been no more successful than the attempts at self-regulation by the profession. Chapter 1 is entitled ‘The End of Innocence’, but one is left wondering whose innocence? The authors reveal that corporate frauds had been occurring for decades, so it is unlikely that anyone remained naive for so long. In fact, a complete historical review of the profession would reveal that similar questions were being asked of practitioners back in the nineteenth century, and it was not uncommon to find newspapers calling audits ‘a delusion and a snare’. If there was an age of innocence in the public perception of the western accounting profession, it ended with the scandals of the late nineteenth century. Practitioners may question whether the authors are fully aware of the commercial pressures which they, the practitioners, face; on page 14, the outdated notion that ‘the [audit] fee is based on the time spent doing the audit testing’ is asserted. Sadly those days have long gone, and instead auditors have now to price their services beforehand and work to that target – it is the need to bring home the completed audit in budget that often has led auditors to cut corners. The assertion is then contradicted on the next page, by the claim that audit fees are controlled by company management. Another claim (also on page 15) that audit fees ‘[are] still the large firms’ major revenue source’ seems equally out of touch with the modern world. Chapter 2 looks at the business of public accounting and introduces the notion that bad things happen – normal accidents. The idea of normal accidents refers to the direct result of a failure to maintain the balance between professional privilege and ethical responsibility. The existence of a patchwork of regulation rather than a cohesive framework allows instances of bad practice occasionally to slip through. There is a very competent and succinct review of the professionalization literature (including the usual sources such as Larson, Richardson, Johnson, Abbott and Friedson) given in Chapter 3. In particular, Neu and Green examine the role of ethics and ethical codes in the discourse over professional power and legitimacy and as an attempt to reduce the incidence of normal accidents. Their thesis begins to enter more contentious territory when they exaggerate the part played by what others have called the ‘trade magazines’. Neu and Green view the CA Magazine as an instrument of moral and hegemonic leadership to serve the purposes of those at the head of the