Professional Ethics and Information Technology
What the exam tests
This domain tests the Myanmar CPA Code of Ethics, aligned with the IESBA framework, and the IT controls that support reliable financial reporting. Expect threats, safeguards, confidentiality, independence, cybersecurity, and audit data analytics.
Core rules
- Fundamental principles: integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, and professional behaviour.
- Threats include self-interest, self-review, advocacy, familiarity and intimidation.
- Safeguards include separate teams, independent reviews, rotation, and declining the engagement where threats are too significant.
- IT general controls cover access, change management, backup and cybersecurity; application controls cover input, processing and output.
- Confidentiality continues after the engagement ends, subject to legal or professional exceptions.
Worked example
An audit firm is asked to prepare a material fair value valuation that its audit team will rely on. This creates a self-review threat because the firm would audit its own work. If the valuation is material and management cannot take responsibility, safeguards such as a separate valuation team and independent review may be insufficient; the firm should decline the valuation or the audit. Routine tax compliance may be acceptable with safeguards.
Traps that cost marks
Treating disclosure as enough to remove a conflict; confusing familiarity with objectivity; ignoring self-review when advisory work feeds the audit; storing client data on unencrypted personal cloud accounts; and relying on IT application controls without testing general controls.