As the world marks global ethics day, professional accountants, long trusted as custodians of financial integrity, are facing a new era of ethical challenges amid a rise in business scandals and evolving expectations.

The results show 68 percent of respondents from Africa said that ethical dilemmas have become more difficult to resolve in the past three years.

This happens despite governments and regulatory bodies worldwide are imposing stricter regulations to ensure transparency and accountability in financial reporting and sustainability.

A report from the world’s leading professional accountancy body ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) published to mark Global Ethics Day, highlights the evolving nature of ethical challenges and the increasing complexity of ethical dilemmas in accountancy. 

The new era of ethical challenges for professional accountants is based on over 1,100 responses from 135 countries.

The global findings reveal that 55 percent of accountants have witnessed unethical behaviour in their career and almost one in four (24 percent) have been put under pressure to behave unethically in the last three years. 

In addition, the results revealed that more men have experienced ethical pressure than women: 27 percent of males have been put under pressure to act in an unethical way, compared with 19 percent of females.

Jamil Ampomah, director – Africa at ACCA, said: ‘These insights underscore the need for robust ethical leadership and culture in organisations, and ongoing learning and development to support professional accountants in navigating these challenges in today's evolving landscape.’

People were asked to name their top three areas for ethical challenges over the past three years. The top results were leadership and culture (40 percent), AI and technology (32 percent and 26 percent) and sustainability (30 percent).

 Globalisation, driven by technology, is facilitating businesses to expand across borders – which in turn creates new ethical challenges emerging due to regional variations including cultural, legal and economic factors. 

While the drivers of complexity in ethical dilemmas are broadly similar globally, the research underscores the importance of considering local factors in promoting and enforcing ethical behaviour.

By contrast, the nature of where we work has also transformed during this time. With people often working remotely, and individually while part of a team, when ethical challenges do arise, they’re potentially resolving them in a different way.

The research also highlights key areas for senior leadership to address in the near future include mental health and wellbeing, professional competence and continuous learning, technology and data ethics, ethical leadership and governance, diversity, equity and inclusion and sustainability reporting.

ACCA also held some roundtable discussions with members globally, which drew some interesting observations. 

On ethical leadership and culture, one member highlighted the troubling trend of ‘a culture of lies, falsehoods, and violence’ while another noted a disconnect between organisational rhetoric and actions, with leaders often ‘saying one thing and doing another.’

On AI, One member noted: ‘Addressing AI's ethical considerations will be challenging due to the complexity of eliminating bias from diverse data sources and ensuring AI decisions are fair and transparent.’

Another member added: ‘Balancing the use of sophisticated AI tools for fraud prevention with the respect for individual privacy rights is a critical ethical challenge.’

In analysing the results of the statistics and open ended questions, ACCA also noted some differences regionally and between auditor and non-auditor challenges.

The ACCA’s recent global report “Ethical dilemmas in an era of sustainability reporting” provides real-world scenarios for accountants/non-accountants to equip them to manage the ethical dilemmas they regularly face – at a time when the regulatory requirements for sustainability reporting are growing.

The breadth of ethical challenges identified through our research underscores the importance of strong ethical standards, training and enforcement in accounting profession.