RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

Ethical aspects of accountancy and audit professions 291
ence cost of 3.65 euro / kg that would have been obtained if it used their own equipment, it
results that the savings obtained would have been worth approx. 108.624 lei.
In conclusion, the lack of a National Strategy regarding the medical waste led to the loss
of funding from European funds of EUR 17,331,994 (approx. 77,683,730 lei). If all health units
would have treated the quantities of waste, with the facilities provided by the state, they would
have achieved during 2012-2014 estimated savings of 1,853,946 lei (approx. 413.633 euro).
In the spring of 2016, the press revealed that in the Romanian health system was widely
used diluted disinfectants, purchased from Hexi Pharma Company. Investigative journalists
have ordered a laboratory test of a disinfectant product Hexi Pharma. The test, conducted in
the laboratory ICECHIM the Ministry of Education, revealed a lower concentration than the
one specified. The diluted disinfectants crisis in Romania in 2016 arose as a result of researching
nonconformities in relation to legal rules, parameters of disinfectant products purchased
and used in medical institutions in Romania.
These cases raise the issue of professionalism and integrity of public hospitals managers
in Romania and also the effectiveness of internal controls, internal audit. These losses of public
funds were signalled by internal controllers or internal auditors? These alerts have been taken
into account? Were there whistleblowers who report possible violations of the law from managers?
It is clear that public procurement audit was either impaired or totally nonexistent; otherwise,
the internal auditors would have pointed out deficiencies of the internal control systems
in their reports. They could also alert the Central Unit for Internal Audit within the Ministry
of Finance. Unfortunately, in Romania, the performance audit is rarely exercised, mainly from
lack of knowledge, lack of performance indicators and especially due to the lack of involvement
of managers in this process, sometimes for reasons related to corruption. The above mentioned
cases raise question about the degree of independency, objectivity, professionalism of
internal auditors operating not only in public hospitals, but in many other public institutions.
Conclusions
Accountancy and auditing profession have to face ethical challenges in latest years. Disclosures
made in the press related to corruption scandals, tax evasion, even collaboration
between auditors and criminals (Enron – Arthur Andersen case) have attracted the attention
in the last decade on ethical issues often neglected to the detriment of professional competence.
Internationally, there is a need of revising the rules of ethics, but especially of changing
tax legislation and strengthening the fight against fraud l based on judicial cooperation
between countries. Without a change in approach conjugated governments around the world,
national budgets will suffer losses, because citizens will suffer from poorer quality of the public
services and professional auditors will lose their prestige. In Romania, a young democracy,
professional audit and accountancy bodies have to increase their transparency by disclosing
cases of infringement of the ethical codes and contributing, accordingly, to the awareness of
the public regarding such incidents. Recent disclosures of the National Anticorruption Department
are a good practice in this regard. Focusing on performance audit on public spending is
essential for strengthening the state authority and restore citizens’ trust in public institutions.