The complete ethics chain of value: from social and ethical principles to the role of the official auditing and accounting revision entities

The lack of ethical and deontological principles and the absence of a strong sense of social responsibility from public and private entities can cause the fall of the social and economic structure of corporations, regions, countries and/or continents. Portugal, in particular, has not been immune to all these questions. One should highlight the most recent cases related to the Portuguese financial sector, and the efforts made by governmental authorities and official regulatory agents in applying strong measures to overcome some of the serious problems that have arisen at these institutions. Through an Ethical Commission, the Portuguese Parliament has investigated the possible pressure on private media entities by people and organisations close to the government. Building on previous work, this paper proposes a new ethics chain of value that should be relevant to the official auditing and accounting revision entities, because it stresses the importance of ethical, deontological and social responsibility in relation to the principles required for official regulatory and supervisory authorities.