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Essay on The Dilemma Of An Accountant

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The ethical dilemma in this case is one that Daniel Potter is faced with. Daniel is a staff accountant at a Big Eight accounting firm, Baker Greenleaf. He was given the duty of performing an audit on a wholly-owned real estate subsidiary (Sub) of a long-standing and important client of his firm. Oliver Freeman is Daniel’s project manager. Oliver is the one that gave Daniel the task of performing the audit, and he is expecting a clean opinion from Daniel on the analysis of the Sub in order to secure the clients account exclusively. While performing the audit, Daniel found a discrepancy with the value of the Sub’s largest real estate properties. The Sub had valued the property at $2 million on their balance sheet, and …show more content…

The first key stakeholder is the accounting firm, Baker Greenleaf. Baker Greenleaf’s stake in this case has to do with the client involved in the case. The client is a long-standing and important account that Baker has shared with another Big Eight accounting firm. The decision that Daniel makes can have one of several affects on the status of the account between the client and Baker Greenleaf. Baker feels that if the client receives a satisfactory performance on a special audit, then they may secure the account exclusively instead of having to share it with another accounting firm. If Daniel does not say anything about the incident, then Baker Greenleaf will have a great chance of obtaining the account exclusively because of the clean opinion. If Daniel does go to someone about the incident and the file is pulled and changed to his original recommendation that included the subject-to-opinion proviso, then Baker Greenleaf may not obtain the account exclusively or may even lose the account altogether. The next key stakeholder that I have determined is Daniel Potter. Daniel could possibly have a lot at stake in this case. If Daniel decides to not say anything about the incident, then it could possibly turn out bad for him in a couple of ways. First, it would mean that the negative evaluation that Oliver turned in on him would stand. Second, if by some chance the value of the property was discovered by a buyer

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