The new millennium did not augur well for the accounting profession. Early 21st Century witnessed a series of accounting scandals in high-profile companies like Enron, Worldcom, Tyco International, Parmalat and AIG. The exposure of corporate failures in quick succession led to serious public concerns on the quality of financial reporting, the adequacy of accounting standards and corporate governance. The collapse of one of the Big Five Accounting firms, Arthur Andersen, only reflects the enormity of the issues confronting corporate financial reporting. Public confidence on the accounting profession has waned. This article discusses to what extent accounting scandals can be attributed to failure of accounting or financial governance.

"The most striking contradiction of our civilization is the fundamental reverence for truth which we profess and the thorough-going disregard for it which we practice."

Fraud is defined as: "Any dishonest activity involving the extraction of value from a business, directly or indirectly, regardless of whether the perpetrator benefits personally from his or her actions."

`Occupational fraud' on the other hand, involves misuse of one's office to attain personal enrichment. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) defines occupational fraud as, "the use of one's occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization's resources or assets."The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Handbook of Fraud and Commercial Crime Prevention describes fraud as `criminal deception intended to financially benefit the deceiver'. Within the framework of audit application, the AICPA describes fraud in SAS No. 99 as "intentional acts that result in a material misstatement in financial statements that are the subject of an audit."

The Accounting World Magazine, Accounting Frauds, Corporate Governance, Accounting Scandals, Financial Reporting, Financial Governance, Accounting Governance, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, AICPA, Financial Statements, Internal Audit Department, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Sebi, Sarbanes-Oxley Act.