Suggestions for Solving Cheating Scandals at Public Accounting Firms

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide suggestions that may help to resolve problems that public accounting firms have experienced with employees cheating on the AICPA’s ethics exam and on training exams, including Continuing Professional Education (CPE) exams. To form these suggestions, we analyzed the recent cheating scandal at Ernst & Young (EY) that was widely publicized in June 2022. Our suggestions include: (1) impose more effective penalties and deterrents; (2) redesign the ethics exam; (3) implement mandatory time for CPE and provide confidential outplacement services, and (4) rethink CPE requirements for the profession as a whole.