The ICAEW's Recommendations on Accounting Principles and secrecy of process

Abstract

This article discusses the origin, operation, and impact of the ICAEW's programme of issuing a series of Recommendations on Accounting Principles from 1942 to 1969, and examines in particular the secrecy of process which prevailed in that era.

Keywords::

• accounting principles
• recommendations
• due process
• secrecy
• ICAEW

Notes

The author is the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Accounting at Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA. E‐mail: [email protected]. The author expresses gratitude to the anonymous reviewer for many valuable comments on an earlier draft.