ACCOUNTANCY PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND ASSESSMENT OF COMPLIANCE LEVEL BY THE NIGERIAN AUDITORS

The primary objective of auditing is to enable the auditor to express his professional and independent opinion on the true and fair view of financial statements of an enterprise. Auditing is governed by accountancy professional ethics which the Nigerian auditors are expected to comply with before expression of their opinions. The two major professional accountancy bodies in Nigeria, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) continuously clamouring for the relevance and compliance with the ethics, yet, it appears as if this effort has not been translated into action by some auditors either because of the level of their competence or otherwise. The objective of this study is to find out whether the Nigerian auditors, irrespective of their qualifications and competence status, comply with this professional ethics. This assertion becomes necessary as it is in practice any audit team member is an auditor therefore becomes a determinant of the true and fair view expression (as the product of compliance with the professional ethics). Primary data in the form of questionnaire was used for the study. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique was used in analyzing the data. The study finds out that there are no statistically significant differences among the three categories of auditors selected in the area of compliance with the ethics of the profession. The study recommends that there should be a method of measuring the level of compliance with the professional ethics by ICAN and ANAN taking into cognizance their qualifications and competence level to ensure healthier auditor’s judgment. Any default should adequately be punished.