Abstract The article presents a study which evaluated the position of the Committee of Professional Ethics of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants on management services. This evaluation involved both a priori and an empirical analysis of two contentions. The first contention states that potential conflicts of interest between management consulting and the factual independence of a certified public accountant (CPA) are limited to two situations. The second contention states that acting as a management consultant does not impair the CPA's appearance of independence; that is, it does not suggest to a reasonable observer a conflict of interest.
Arthur Albert Schulte (Sat,) studied this question.