ABSTRACT
In the social and economic context, a report from the International Business Leaders' Forum on the corporate responsibility of major professional services companies published in January 2002 was particularly timely. Many of the companies reviewed, including KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, provide consultancy services on aspects of corporate citizenship, and so this was a chance to consider how they practise what they preach. While the accounting and auditing community was awakening to the importance of personal values, elements of the corporate citizenship community continued to professionalise service provision in traditional ways that reduced the focus on values. And in March 2002, at a development policy forum in the United Kingdom, the Secretary for International Development, Clare Short, suggested that an arms industry that acted responsibly would be vital in providing governments such as Thabo Mbeki's in South Africa with the potential to take on peace-keeping roles across Africa.
