ABSTRACT
For all that they are usually conjoined, as here, the question of accounting standards actually sits rather uneasily with corporate governance. Clearly a wellgoverned company will have impeccable accounting standards: in particular its statements of income and profits will be above reproach and its assessment of assets fair and true, insofar as both are feasible goals. But this is about what the company does, rather than the structure of how the company is run. Accurate accounts themselves are really a goal of corporate governance, not part of it. One way of looking at the relationship, though, is to argue that anything which allows shareholders to make informed judgements is good governance1 and therefore to see corporate governance as providing a series of mechanisms as a result of which shareholders can be reassured that accounting malpractice has been eliminated, or at least reduced to an absolute minimum. This at least permits us free rein in talking about the issue.
