Ethical education of the public accountant. Case study: Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Zulia

The purpose of this article is to expound theoretically regarding ethics and their importance in the public accountant's education; likewise, it seeks to know and describe the opinion assumed by public accounting students in the School of Economic and Social Sciences (FCES) at the University of Zulia (LUZ). Methodology consisted of a bibliographical review corresponding to the aforementioned theme, including diverse documents issued by FCES-LUZ, supported by the application of a self-administered questionnaire with open and closed questions applied to a random sample of students in the second academic period, 2005. It was found that the students have vague knowledge about the terms ethics, morals and values; likewise, they do not know the values they should practice according to the curricular plan and the code of ethics that governs their profession. Conclusions were that the institution has not been effective in the ethical education of its students, and various corrective actions should be taken to implement a transversal values education system.