GC Ethics in Accounting a Decision Making Approach Book Questions Discussion

3. Your buddy mentioned that she is thinking about suing under the qui tam law. You are not sure what that is.

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a. What is a qui tam provision?

b. Can employees
who do not work for the government sue under this provision?

c. Should the
IRS offer a qui tam provision to reward citizens who help the government
recover unpaid taxes? How many people would you “rat out” if you knew that you
could collect, say, 20% of the unpaid taxes, fines, and penalties collected by
the government?

4. Should
whistleblower laws be transformed into mandatory rules that impose punishment
on any person who has knowledge of a major financial reporting violation but
knowingly fails to act?

5. Should the
amount of the reward given to a whistleblower depend on whether the
whistleblower acted out of the purest of motives, rather than greed or a desire
to impose revenge on an employer or a coworker?

6. Should
co-conspirators in any criminal matter be allowed to testify in court? If a
whistleblower participated in perpetrating accounting fraud, should she be
eligible to collect a whistleblower reward?

10. You currently work in the SEC reporting division of a midsize, publicly traded company. The company has a Board of Directors and an Audit Committee. You have worked there for three years, and you have a cordial but professional relationship with your direct supervisor. The company has a hotline for reporting “improper accounting, fraud, embezzlement, and other misconduct.” The hotline accepts anonymous calls and is staffed by a division of a law firm that specializes in ethics and corporate compliance. The company also has a Code of Conduct that strictly prohibits retaliation against any employee who reasonably believes that misconduct has occurred. In each of the following cases, state whether the likelihood of you reporting misconduct to your direct supervisor is Low, Medium, or High:

a. Late at night, you saw a colleague place an expensive art object from the company’s front lobby in the trunk of his car and drive away.

b. Late at
night, you saw the company CEO place an expensive art object from the company’s
front lobby in the trunk of his car and drive away.

c. You were
asked to improperly classify factory rent in General Overhead. It correctly
should be capitalized as an element of Work in Process Inventory.Your colleague
told you that, by doing this, the company’s Gross Profit Margin on sales would
be higher, at least in the short run. This will lead stock market analysts to
upgrade the company’s stock.

d. You saw a
colleague deliberately book a single sale twice. This results in reported Sales
being too high.

e. You saw a
colleague deliberately move a sale from January, Year 2, into December, Year 1,
by altering the shipping and invoice dates.

f. Your company
sustained a loss when a burglary occurred. The actual loss was $30,000, but
your colleague exaggerated this loss, filing a claim with the company’s insurer
to recover for a $70,000 loss.

g. A client
offered you a bribe during the course of an audit to “look the other way” and
accelerate the recording of an installment sale to a high-risk customer
entirely into the year that goods were delivered. Under GAAP concerning sales
to uncreditworthy customers, some of the revenue properly should have been deferred
until installment payments are received in a later year.

h. You suspect
that a member of your internal audit team accepted a bribe because she has
approved of a depreciation method for expected environmental reclamation costs
that is grossly incorrect.

i. A foreign
government official demanded a bribe from you to facilitate your company’s
shipment of goods “rapidly” through their Customs and Importation Department.

j. You suspect
that a partner at your CPA firm is sharing confidential information about one
of your clients with an outside investor that is trading the client company’s
stock.

k. You
witnessed a fellow employee violating the company’s policy against using the
Internet during work hours.

l. You
witnessed a fellow employee using pirated software at work.

Requirements: 4 to 5 lines for each requirement

Requirements: Requirements: 2-3 pages