Bryan Longview's ethical dilemma involves a situation in which he is asked to work without regarding the time, which is sometimes called kitchen-tabling or eating time. One of the concerns with eating time is that it can lead to a more severe problem known as premature signoff, in which a staff person signs off as having completed work without performing the necessary procedures. Consider Tom Holton's situation below. Tom Holton has far too busy a social life to work overtime. To make certain that work does not interfere with his other plans, he tests only part of the assigned sample. For example, if he is asked to test 25 cash disbursement transactions, he tests the first 15 but indicates that he has tested all 25. Why bother? Tom never comes across any problems. A supervisor, curious about Tom's amazing ability to beat the time budget, decides to carefully redo Tom's work. The supervisor concludes that Tom is signing off procedures without completing them. She immediately reports this to the partner in charge of the audit engagement. The partner, with full support of his other partners, dismisses Tom that day-with no counselling out, and no two weeks' notice.
APPLYING YOUR PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT
1. What do you think of the partner's decision to dismiss Tom?
2. If Tom's reason for not having time to perform the work was that he had a child who was extremely ill and he was the primary caregiver, what would you think of the partner's decision?