Andrew Barr, the longest serving Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief accountant, was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1901 and passed away in 1995 at the age of 94. After receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Illinois, he became a certified CPA in Illinois and began his career as a staff accountant in a CPA firm in Chicago. During his life, he has not only achieved great accomplishment in the field of accounting, but also spent a lot of time getting involved with military histories. Before he began his long career with the SEC, he spent approximately 12 years working as an instructor in accounting in Economics Department at Yale University. And finally, starting from 1938, Andrew started his career with …show more content…
He was also the official historian for the third armed division until the end of the Second World War. After he was discharged after the war, he remained in the Armed Reserve until 1961 until he returned back to SEC and continued his work as a research accountant. He later on served as assistant chief accountant and chief accountant of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance until 1956 and that was when he began his career as the Chief Accountant of the SEC until 1972. Andrew spent majority of his career focusing on the development of accounting and its reporting standards which substantially impacted the entire industry. When Andrew started as a research accountant at the SEC in 1938, he was assigned to work on the issues of the McKesson & Robbins fraud under W. W. Werntz, who was at that time the Chief Accountant of SEC. McKesson & Robbins scandal was one of the biggest scandal in the 20th century. Philip Musica, someone who was had committed two crimes, buried his identity and criminal history to become F. Donald Coster and bought the company Adelphi Pharmaceutical Manufacturing …show more content…
The Council of the American Institute of Accountants believed that it is okay for the accountant to certify the financial statements as long as he or she does not have “substantial” financial interest in the enterprise. The SEC, on the other hand, disagree with this idea and they believe that a person should not certify the financial statements of an enterprise if he or she has “any” financial interest or benefit in the enterprise. Due to the many historical incidences and personal experiences he listed in his paper, Andrew showed how easily conflicts of interest can happen due to things like financial interest and direct employment by the client , which further supported SEC’s view. Andrew also emphasized on the importance of independence as he quoted that “All reputable accountants assume a responsibility to persons other than those who employ them”(Reference) This is saying that one of the most important asset of the accountants is their integrity and they have a responsibility towards the general public since they are the ones that people rely on when digging