Singapore has been ranked among the top five of most corrupt-free countries in the world.
According to civic organisation Transparency International, Singapore ranks 5th out of 159 countries in its Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Despite the high regard, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore (ACRA) is reviewing the Code of Ethics for accountants to incorporate the latest best practices.
The past six years have been marred by huge corporate scandals, the most memorable being Enron in 2001. And then there is the Accord Customer Care Services (ACCS) debacle in Singapore.
But industry watchers say that Singapore firms overall have displayed a high level of integrity, largely because of the regulatory framework.
Kon Yin Tong, Managing Partner at Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton, said: “Singapore is ranked 5th out of 159 countries in the Transparency International’s CPI, corruption perception index 2005. That’s probably reflective of the good regulatory enforcement regime that we have in Singapore compared to our neighbours.
“While greed is a strong motivation for fraud, ironically it is not the needy that have been hogging the headlines.
Top management is instrumental in steering the direction of the company but some accountants note that many large fraud cases in recent years have been committed, abetted or even instigated by these key managers.
Singapore companies may rank highly for their above-board practices, but the authorities are not resting on their laurels.
Kon Yin Tong said: “In that review, ACRA would probably be trying the International Federation Accountant’s Code of Ethics but we would probably adopt the IFAC plus model, meaning we would take the basic code and add on what is Singapore-specific, to enhance the code, to modernize it and keep up with best practices around the world.”
A focus of the review could include the issue of auditors’ independence.
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 08 September 2006