IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausact/v24y2014i3p200-206.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Using Expert Accounting Witness Evidence and the Conceptual Framework

Author

Listed:
  • Russell Craig
  • Wally Smieliauskas
  • Joel Amernic

Abstract

type="main"> To enhance understanding of the status of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, we analyse important rules of evidence in United States (US) courts regarding the presentation of expert accounting witness testimony. We draw on this analysis to recommend the relocation of the Conceptual Framework in the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) hierarchy. For empirical support, we explore how rules of evidence in the criminal trial in 2006 of Enron's two most senior executives affected assessment of whether Enron's financial reports conformed with the FASB's GAAP. We recommend that the FASB's Conceptual Framework should be included in authoritative literature as the uppermost authority, and that it be grounded closely in user needs and the ethical principles associated with meeting those needs. Further, we recommend that accounting expert witnesses adopt an overriding concern for objectivity and impartiality in assisting courts to understand complex accounting matters within the Conceptual Framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Russell Craig & Wally Smieliauskas & Joel Amernic, 2014. "Assessing Conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Using Expert Accounting Witness Evidence and the Conceptual Framework," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 24(3), pages 200-206, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausact:v:24:y:2014:i:3:p:200-206
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/auar.12039
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benston, George J., 2008. "The shortcomings of fair-value accounting described in SFAS 157," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 101-114.
    2. Ray Ball, 2009. "Market and Political/Regulatory Perspectives on the Recent Accounting Scandals," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 277-323, May.
    3. Cho, Myojung & Kim, Oliver & Lim, Steve C., 2010. "Two conflicting definitions of relevance in the FASB Conceptual Framework," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 604-611, November.
    4. Benston, George J. & Hartgraves, Al L., 2002. "Enron: what happened and what we can learn from it," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 105-127.
    5. Russell Craig & Prasuna Reddy, 2004. "Assessments of the Expert Evidence of Accountants," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 14(32), pages 73-80, March.
    6. Norreklit, Hanne, 2003. "The Balanced Scorecard: what is the score? A rhetorical analysis of the Balanced Scorecard," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 591-619, August.
    7. Benston, George J., 2006. "Fair-value accounting: A cautionary tale from Enron," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 465-484.
    8. Maria H. Sanchez & Shirley Wei Zhang, 2012. "The Role Of The Expert Witness In Accounting Fraud Cases," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 6(1), pages 103-111.
    9. Martin Bugeja, 2006. "Independent Expert Valuations in Takeovers: Are They Biased?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 16(39), pages 19-24, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wally Smieliauskas & Kathryn Bewley & Ulfert Gronewold & Ulrich Menzefricke, 2018. "Misleading Forecasts in Accounting Estimates: A Form of Ethical Blindness in Accounting Standards?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 437-457, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. William L. Smith & David M. Boje & Kevin D. Melendrez, 2010. "The financial crisis and mark‐to‐market accounting," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(3), pages 281-303, August.
    2. Gwilliam, David & Jackson, Richard H.G., 2008. "Fair value in financial reporting: Problems and pitfalls in practice," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 240-259.
    3. Palea, Vera, 2019. "Accounting for Sustainable Finance: Does Fair value Accounting Fit for Long-term Investing in Equity?," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201912, University of Turin.
    4. Tamara Poje & Maja Zaman Groff, 2022. "Mapping Ethics Education in Accounting Research: A Bibliometric Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 451-472, August.
    5. Ray Ball & Xi Li & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2015. "Contractibility and Transparency of Financial Statement Information Prepared Under IFRS: Evidence from Debt Contracts Around IFRS Adoption," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 915-963, December.
    6. Basu Sudipta & Waymire Gregory B., 2019. "Historical Cost and Conservatism Are Joint Adaptations That Help Identify Opportunity Cost," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, March.
    7. Wally Smieliauskas & Russell Craig & Joel Amernic, 2008. "A Proposal to Replace ‘True and Fair View’ With ‘Acceptable Risk of Material Misstatement’," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 44(3), pages 225-250, September.
    8. Palea, Vera, 2018. "Financial reporting for sustainable development: Critical insights into IFRS implementation in the European Union," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 248-260.
    9. Saher Aqel, 2012. "The IASB and FASB Convergence Process: Current Developments," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 2(2), pages 83-105, April.
    10. Palea, Vera, 2015. "The political economy of fair value reporting and the governance of the standards-setting process: Critical issues and pitfalls from a continental European union perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-15.
    11. Nguyen, Thu Ha & Lan, Yihui & Treepongkaruna, Sirimon & Zhong, Rui, 2023. "Credit rating downgrades and stock price crash risk: International evidence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    12. CSÅ SZ Csongor, 2013. "Tangible Assets Revaluation Policy At Listed Entities On the Bucharest Stock Exchange - Tier I," Anale. Seria Stiinte Economice. Timisoara, Faculty of Economics, Tibiscus University in Timisoara, vol. 0, pages 174-181, May.
    13. Kyle D. Allen & Drew B. Winters, 2021. "Auditor response to changing risk: money market funds during the financial crisis," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1057-1086, April.
    14. TOTH Kornel & HERCZEG Adrienn, 2015. "The Effect Of Globalization On Frameworks And Concepts In Accounting," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 968-975, July.
    15. Hall, Matthew, 2010. "Accounting information and managerial work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28539, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Pantazi Marius, 2021. "In order to thrive, first we need to fix accounting and management Then, we must report what matters," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 15(1), pages 723-736, December.
    17. Zhang, Eagle & Andrew, Jane, 2016. "Rethinking China: Discourse, convergence and fair value accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-21.
    18. Howieson, Bryan, 2003. "Accounting practice in the new millennium: is accounting education ready to meet the challenge?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 69-103.
    19. Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar & Chowdhury, Hasibul & Han, Hien Duc, 2021. "CEO centrality and stock price crash risk," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    20. Sarowar Hossain & Jeff Coulton & Jenny Jing Wang, 2023. "Client Importance and Audit Quality at the Individual Audit Partner, Office, and Firm Levels," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(2), pages 650-696, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ausact:v:24:y:2014:i:3:p:200-206. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1035-6908 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.