A School District Decided to Add an Ethics Officer to Its

Essay

A school district decided to add an ethics officer to its administration. The district had watched how often the district was dealing with ethically sensitive situations. After doing research into how many organizations used an ethics officer and the desired education and background for such an officer, the district advertised for a person with the following qualifications: education in accounting, finance, or criminal justice; CPA preferred; and experience with compliance or audits. The district hired a person with a CPA license, degree in accounting and experience as an internal auditor doing compliance audits.
At the press conference to introduce the new ethics officer, a local news reporter pointedly asked about the candidate's background. The ethics officer stated as a CPA he knew how to handle ethical issues and he had the highest integrity. The reporter decided to a little more background research before writing the article. The state board of public accountancy of that state maintained an online database for the public to verify that a CPA was currently licensed. When the reporter could not find the ethics officer as a currently licensed CPA, he called the district and the ethics officer for a comment.
What should the district and ethics officer do? Use the ethical decision making model to defend your answer.