Professional accountants's ethical education perspective: Bilecik province example

Union of Chambers of Certified Public Accountants in Turkey (TÜRMOB) is a member of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). The mission of International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants, which works under IFAC, is to provide ethical standards and guidance for professional accountants. The most recent development by the Board regarding ethics is the Regulations for Ethics Training of Accounting Professionals and Ethics Contract which was published on the Official Gazette and came into effect on March 27, 2014. The objective of this Regulation is to create willingness for ethics learning. It also aims to define the principles and procedures of the ethics contract between accounting professionals and the chamber they belong to and of ethics training prior to contract so as to reinforce ethics training and ethical behavior. Following the Regulation, training of accounting professionals was commenced by TÜRMOB in 2015 via professional chambers. This study includes the evaluation of the comments- concerning the ethical education method and content covered by the Regulations- by accounting professionals that are members of Chamber of Certified Public Accountants in Bilecik (SMMMO) after the first ethical education they were offered by this chamber. During the interviews, accountants pointed out that they received adequate instruction on workplace ethics and responsibility to society. They also indicated that they improved their ability to make ethical decisions thanks to case studies. The interviews revealed that accountants found ethical education on the website prepared by Union of Chambers of Certified Public Accountants in Turkey (TÜRMOB) sufficient. The participants also agreed with the proposal that similar educations should be held in The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) or other business chambers. Furthermore, the need for more and longer educations was mentioned. Some participants, on the other hand, stated that ethical conceptions of individuals cannot be changed with an online education. Among the topics in the ethics training, work place ethics and professionals' responsibility to public was described as the most satisfactory. Professionals also pointed out that they believe that ethics contract does not bear any meaning for customers. Evaluating the responses from accountants, regarding the ethical educations, based on job experience revealed that those with more job experience gave more positive answers. Key words: Accounting, Ethics, Professional Ethics, Ethics Contract.