A THOMASIAN alumnus has urged Accounting students to uphold professional ethics, saying this will put a stop to rampant graft and corruption in the government.
UST High School alumnus Baltazar Endriga said the integrity of an accountant is always tested in the professional world, especially in dealing with government agencies.
“Relations with the government agencies on matters pertaining to taxes is not taught in most schools; it is already expected from the accountant. Technical expertise should be used in accordance with ethics,” Endriga said, delivering the Third Washington Sycip Lecture, part of the fourth anniversary celebrations of the UST Alfredo M. Velayo College of Accountancy at the Medicine Auditorium last November 13.
Moreover, a certified public accountant (CPA) must be emotionally and mentally mature to face and conquer the “circus of corruption,” he said.
Endriga called for two more years of education in the elementary and secondary levels so that “future CPAs would be mature enough to absorb the complicated lessons.”
Exposure to literature, humanities, and history would be an edge, too, he said.
“We must also focus on other fields like the humanities because it is not enough to know the technicalities of accounting. We must know history so we could relate to and appreciate the present,” he said. “If I were a board member of the CPA organization, I would give non-accounting questions in the board exams.”
Going global
The former president and chief academic officer of the University of the East (UE) recalled: “When I obtained my CPA title, Filipinos were shoulders and heads higher than all other Asian accountants.”
“Indians and Singaporeans used to look at us as superiors, but it’s the opposite right now,” Endriga added.
For him, the decline is due to “brain drain” and the diaspora of Filipino accountants. As early as high school, students already aspire to work abroad. But “if schools are competent enough to meet the international standards,” then there is no more need to go abroad.
“Now that you are trained by excellent professors, you are expected to excel in the (accounting) discipline (and can compete) with foreign counterparts. Being a part of this great and topnotch institution, you have no reason to fail,” he said.
Endriga graduated magna cum laude from UE and pursued his graduate studies at the Harvard Business School. He is now managing partner of Endriga, Manangu & Associates accounting firm.
