Commentary Dale L. Gerboth On The Profession

The accounting profession must revise its standard-setting process to allow more decisions to be made by practitioners exercising their professional judgment. At a time when the public is questioning the ability of the accounting profession to regulate itself in the public interest, the preoccupation with techniques is misdirecting the policies. People regulate their conduct according to the public interest in response to standards they impose on themselves, not in response to rules imposed by others. Sound policies of self-regulation recognize the primacy of character. Current efforts to solve the problems of fair representation by prescribing accounting techniques are counterproductive. More and more accountants feel themselves excluded from the standard-setting process and are unwilling to enforce more than perfunctory compliance with its pronouncements. This has led to the crumbling of the only enforcement mechanism worthy of a profession -- voluntary self-enforcement.