// A short story
Danny was a nice enough guy. Didn’t know him very well but we would often drink coffee at McDonalds in the morning and lament about the antics of the city’s politicians and their crazy decisions. He came in the other day, sat down with his coffee and sighed.
“What’s the problem, boy?” I said to him as the 70 something old man sat down.
“Got an anniversary coming up and don’t know what to get the wife,” he said.
I responded “how many years has it been”?
“Forty- Five”
“Forty- Five!! Well, she certainly is the Love of your life, huh?”
He looks at his coffee, takes a drink and says softly to me after a minute of coffee drinking,“No, not really”.
“What are you talking about man?- you have been married to her, Mary right? For 45 years”.
He looks at me long and hard and finally says- “No, Rita was and still is the Love of my life”. He pauses, then continues “but then again, I didn’t know her all that well”.
I said “who in the devil is Rita”?
Danny thinks into the distance for a moment and continues as if talking to himself.
“Oh, Rita and I met my senior of college when I visited a friend in Little Rock for a long weekend of college fun. I loved her the minute I saw her- she was an angel”. We met on Friday night. By Saturday afternoon, we were walking in the park together. I kissed her the first time Saturday night. I can remember the taste of that kiss fifty years ago like I can taste this coffee today. We spent the rest of the weekend oblivious to everything and everybody else, including the guy I went to visit. It was great. I was madly in love.”
He caught his breath.
“Puppy love, huh?” I said.
If looks could kill, his micro-second look on me would have buried me, ten times over. But he caught himself.
“No- it was not puppy love. We went on to see each other often for three years- every time we met it was as wonderful as the first time. But she was in Little Rock and I was in Madison. There were lots of phone calls. Wonderful phone calls.”
“Wow, three years! What happened?” Why didn’t you get married?
“Well, I graduated, she was a sophomore. I got drafted, went in the army. Timing was bad. She wanted to finish school- I understood. I came home, went to work, she graduated, started her career, met somebody, I met Mary, we both got married and the rest is history.”
Do you talk?
"Yep, once a year by phone on her birthday- takes three minutes.She is the Love of my life, but, of course I don’t know her all that well”.
"Does Mary know?"
"Nope, and never will, right?"
"Right!"
“Well”, Danny said, “got to move on and find an anniversary gift for Mary- see ya tomorrow”
“Ok, Bud”.
As he walked away, I heard him say softly to himself “Yep, the Love of my life- but I didn’t know her all that well”.
//
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
A Disgusted Certified Public Accountant
It has been many years since I thought about why I left public accounting, auditing and specifically Arthur Andersen & Co., My first job was Andersen out of college and quite frankly, the job I still loved the most of many jobs I have had . But, first Andersen left me down and then, as I found out much later, so did the CPA profession. Andersen in the 1960’s and 70’s called itself the “Marines” of public accounting firms. I was proud to be selected and work for them in the auditing area. Andersen was beyond approach and prided itself in being independent in fact and perception. It was big enough to ward off any possibility of intimidation and tried to do the “right thing” in its role as an independent auditor of companies, big and small. Its partners and employees were proud of this independence, did what I considered excellent work, had long hours and were paid well.
But in the late 70’s and early 80’s the Firm began to change and it wasn’t for the better. The inclusion of consultants, first as staff than as principals and “partners” started to change the firm from a CPA firm to a CPA/Consultant firm. My position as an Audit Manager became fair game to the Andersen consultants to request that I start marketing some of Andersen’s consulting services to our auditing clients. This insidious marketing began to influence the minds of audit staff and partners and “independence” became less and less of an issue within Andersen. After a reflective period of time, I decided to leave Andersen as I did not see how I would be happy in this schizophrenic environment of independence of auditing and dependence on consulting revenues. While premature by 20 years and numerous lawsuits, Andersen succumbed to the consultant’s money and perished in the Enron scandal.
Unfortunately, the sad tale of poor ethics, no independence and auditing miscues did not end with Andersen’s demise but carries on to this day with both small and large public accounting firms. The government and mostly the CPA profession has not been able to regulate the profession. The profession has turned into a mishmash of auditing and consulting, wheeling and dealing and financial prostitution that has made CPA independence a joke. Public accounting CPA auditing has become like sliced white bread; prevalent and cheap. White bread still has some qualities as toast, but CPA auditing is without any redeeming values save the appearance of something it ain’t. It’s a real shame for me to watch my profession go down in smoke and mirrors.
The reason this issue comes up at this time is that I have now seen the most egregious instance of CPA malpractice in my 30 some years of being a CPA. Our little community of 70,000 just went out for sealed bids for a 5-7 year audit with two regional CPA firms and an incumbent ( 7 years) CPA small firm bidding on the audit. With a minimum of two CPA’s on the employee selection committee (can you believe it? - they get to select their auditor! Unbelievable!), the sealed bids came in with the incumbent CPA firm fee massively higher than the other CPA firms. The employee Committee then allowed the incumbent CPA firm to REBID at a much lower price and recommended their approval to the City Council. it was approved subject to the Local Government Commission approval, which is a rubberstamp joke. The reason the incumbent CPA firm gave to lower their bid was that the higher bid “would put the employee audit selection committee in a bind” by recommending their continued employment.
Either the CPA firm or the CPA employees or both need to take some CPA ethics courses and/or are hiding something from the general public with this “fee negotiation” and continued employment. This has got to be the most egregious act of CPA auditor ineptitude I have seen in my 30 years. It should be noted that the incumbent CPA firm has had numerous consulting engagements with the City outside its auditing role. Auditing and consulting the same firm should have been stopped by the CPA profession long ago after the Andersen debacle. But no, these independence conflicts continue on despite the clear warnings that this is not the true definition of an INDEPENDENT public accountants. Apparently, ethics with both the City CPA’s and the CPA firm have been lost- or were never there in the first place. If this is indicative of its definition of independence; CPA auditing has lost its bearings. Only third party audits (audits contracted with somebody other than the audited party) hold any hope of saving this once noble profession.
May the CPA audit profession Rest in Peace!
Terry Boardman, CPA
Greenville North Carolina
April 22, 2010
It has been many years since I thought about why I left public accounting, auditing and specifically Arthur Andersen & Co., My first job was Andersen out of college and quite frankly, the job I still loved the most of many jobs I have had . But, first Andersen left me down and then, as I found out much later, so did the CPA profession. Andersen in the 1960’s and 70’s called itself the “Marines” of public accounting firms. I was proud to be selected and work for them in the auditing area. Andersen was beyond approach and prided itself in being independent in fact and perception. It was big enough to ward off any possibility of intimidation and tried to do the “right thing” in its role as an independent auditor of companies, big and small. Its partners and employees were proud of this independence, did what I considered excellent work, had long hours and were paid well.
But in the late 70’s and early 80’s the Firm began to change and it wasn’t for the better. The inclusion of consultants, first as staff than as principals and “partners” started to change the firm from a CPA firm to a CPA/Consultant firm. My position as an Audit Manager became fair game to the Andersen consultants to request that I start marketing some of Andersen’s consulting services to our auditing clients. This insidious marketing began to influence the minds of audit staff and partners and “independence” became less and less of an issue within Andersen. After a reflective period of time, I decided to leave Andersen as I did not see how I would be happy in this schizophrenic environment of independence of auditing and dependence on consulting revenues. While premature by 20 years and numerous lawsuits, Andersen succumbed to the consultant’s money and perished in the Enron scandal.
Unfortunately, the sad tale of poor ethics, no independence and auditing miscues did not end with Andersen’s demise but carries on to this day with both small and large public accounting firms. The government and mostly the CPA profession has not been able to regulate the profession. The profession has turned into a mishmash of auditing and consulting, wheeling and dealing and financial prostitution that has made CPA independence a joke. Public accounting CPA auditing has become like sliced white bread; prevalent and cheap. White bread still has some qualities as toast, but CPA auditing is without any redeeming values save the appearance of something it ain’t. It’s a real shame for me to watch my profession go down in smoke and mirrors.
The reason this issue comes up at this time is that I have now seen the most egregious instance of CPA malpractice in my 30 some years of being a CPA. Our little community of 70,000 just went out for sealed bids for a 5-7 year audit with two regional CPA firms and an incumbent ( 7 years) CPA small firm bidding on the audit. With a minimum of two CPA’s on the employee selection committee (can you believe it? - they get to select their auditor! Unbelievable!), the sealed bids came in with the incumbent CPA firm fee massively higher than the other CPA firms. The employee Committee then allowed the incumbent CPA firm to REBID at a much lower price and recommended their approval to the City Council. it was approved subject to the Local Government Commission approval, which is a rubberstamp joke. The reason the incumbent CPA firm gave to lower their bid was that the higher bid “would put the employee audit selection committee in a bind” by recommending their continued employment.
Either the CPA firm or the CPA employees or both need to take some CPA ethics courses and/or are hiding something from the general public with this “fee negotiation” and continued employment. This has got to be the most egregious act of CPA auditor ineptitude I have seen in my 30 years. It should be noted that the incumbent CPA firm has had numerous consulting engagements with the City outside its auditing role. Auditing and consulting the same firm should have been stopped by the CPA profession long ago after the Andersen debacle. But no, these independence conflicts continue on despite the clear warnings that this is not the true definition of an INDEPENDENT public accountants. Apparently, ethics with both the City CPA’s and the CPA firm have been lost- or were never there in the first place. If this is indicative of its definition of independence; CPA auditing has lost its bearings. Only third party audits (audits contracted with somebody other than the audited party) hold any hope of saving this once noble profession.
May the CPA audit profession Rest in Peace!
Terry Boardman, CPA
Greenville North Carolina
April 22, 2010
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