The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) initiated a regional accounting certification program in the Russian language several years ago. It started in Central Asia and spread to Russia and a few other former Soviet republics several years later. Headquarters for the...

Accounting certification in the former Soviet republics lacks credibility. Accountants are not familiar with International Financial Reporting Standards or International Standards on Auditing. Certifications can be bought. Audit opinions can be sold. Financial statements that are auditing by...

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union each of the former Soviet republics has started the process of moving away from central planning and toward a market economy. Part of that process involves private sector institution building. One private sector institution that has generally experienced a...

Timeliness of financial reporting is one of the attributes of good corporate governance identified by the OECD and World Bank. Shareholders and other stakeholders need information while it is still fresh and the more time that passes between year-end and disclosure, the more stale the...

The present study discloses the results of a survey on the ethics of tax evasion that was distributed to accounting, business and law students in New Zealand. Eighteen arguments that have historically been used to justify tax evasion were ranked in terms of relative strength. Analyses were done...

A few years ago Inglehart et al did a massive survey on various aspects of human beliefs and values. Their teams surveyed 200,000 people in more than 80 countries, asking hundreds of questions. One of those questions addressed ethical issues relating to tax evasion. The Inglehart et al study...

Timeliness of financial reporting is an attribute of good corporate governance. Shareholders and other stakeholders need information while it is still fresh and the more time that passes between year-end and disclosure, the more stale the information becomes and the less value it has. Corporate...

The ethics of tax evasion has been discussed sporadically in the theological and philosophical literature for at least 500 years. Martin Crowe wrote a doctoral thesis that reviewed much of that literature in 1944. The debate revolved around about 15 issues. Over the centuries, three main views...

Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the implosion of the Soviet Union, centrally planned economies in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia have been struggling to convert their economic systems from central planning to the market. One facet of this transition is accounting...

Corporate governance has received an increasing amount of attention in recent years. Corporate scandals have brought corporate governance weaknesses to the attention of the general public, especially in the United States. Weaknesses in the corporate structure of some Asian countries have been...