In its continuing efforts to ensure Chartered Accountants complied with the highest standards of professional ethics, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) recently launched the 2014 edition of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants publication.
The revised publication was developed considering the relevant developments to ethics practices worldwide and emerging matters specific to Sri Lanka and was drafted with the objective of establishing high-quality ethics standards for professional accountants.
Dr. Harsha Cabral, President’s Counsel who delivered the keynote speech at the event commended Chartered Accountants for being one of the few professionals that understood the importance of ethics, while also congratulating CA Sri Lanka for ensuring that its professionals maintain such standards while in practice.
“This is one profession in particular which maintains discipline, and you have to be congratulated for this. Most other professions don’t even have a document like this to look at,” he said.
Dr. Cabral also stressed on the importance of being an ethical professional. “It is very easy to lose one’s reputation. It takes years to build it up, sometimes 20 to 30 years, but it takes only five minutes to lose it. That is something we have to keep in mind always,” he said.
President of CA Sri Lanka, Mr. Arjuna Herath noted that ethics has always been an important element in a professional’s life, and over the years in the midst of new challenges and competition, the importance of ethics has been further underscored by professional bodies worldwide.
He said that as members of a distinguished profession, Chartered Accountants are expected to comply with the highest standards of professional ethics, as ethics play a pivotal role in upholding the reputation of the accountancy profession and its professionals.
“As we become more diverse in our professional roles, the issues become that much more complex. 
Chartered Accountants are no longer restricted to traditional number crunching positions, and today give corporate leadership across multiple sectors, thereby facing fresh challenges and the all-important need to uphold and maintain the ethical conduct of business at all times.
Chairman of the Professional Conduct (Ethics) Committee of CA Sri Lanka, Mr. Reyaz Mihular said that the current publication is based on the Code of Ethics issued by the International Ethical Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA), while incorporating required amendments to bring the previous Code in line with the Handbook of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, 2012 Edition issued by IESBA.
“I believe this new Code of Ethics publication would serve to guide our members to fulfil the public expectations and demands since it establishes clear norms for behaviour in various situations,” he said.
