Enron showcases the dangers of feral free-market capitalism that sacrifices the well-being of workers, customers, communities, and other stakeholders on the altar of the bottom line. This company is one more, albeit colossal, example of how Corporate America, by shunning full public accountability, is fouling its own nest.

But Enron could serve a noble cause if it alerts policymakers to the need for full, fair, and responsible corporate accountability to stakeholders. Congress should promptly enact legislation similar to the "Corporate Accountability Act" called for in my book Tyranny of the Bottom Line: Why Corporations Make Good People Do Bad Things.

Congress must also act to restore Certified Public Accountants to their earlier, public responsibility. This requires four measures:

1. Auditing must be separated, with an absolute firewall, from management and tax consulting practices. As long as auditing can be used as a springboard to more lucrative consulting work, auditors cannot independently pass judgment on a company's financial statements. It is unreasonable to expect ordinary persons - not superhuman - to withstand client pressures to accept improper accounting practices, when by so doing they may be costing their firm millions and millions of dollars in future consulting fees.

2. The "revolving door" between CPA firms and audited companies must be firmly closed, with a minimum five-year prohibition against joining a former client. It is asking too much of normal - not superhuman - CPAs to rigorously enforce accounting and reporting standards when to do so could deny them opportunities to join a client as a senior financial executive.

3. Because the public interest is at stake, auditors and auditing must be effectively regulated. The present "system," with its high-sounding but ineffective Public Oversight Board, Independent Standards Board, and peer review, has failed to produce responsible, ethical, and professional behavior by CPAs. The SEC has just announced plans to try to strengthen public oversight.

4. Most importantly, the system in which the judged hire the judges - i.e., the auditees hire, pay, and fire the auditors - is patently indefensible and must be replaced. Imagine going into a courtroom as plaintiff and learning that the judge had been hired, would be paid, and can be fired by the defendant. An independent, government-established, agency must be created, possibly as a unit of the SEC, to collect audit fees from large companies based on standard formulas, and to appoint, compensate, and dismiss the external auditors. Though this proposal rests on simple logic and common sense, it will undoubtedly produce a choleric reaction from both Corporate America and the accounting profession.

As a CPA Dr. Estes served as senior auditor with Arthur Andersen & Co. His experience includes thirty years as a professor, observer, practitioner, and critic of accounting and business. His other books include The Auditor's Report and Investor Behavior, Corporate Social Accounting, and Accounting and Society. Contact information: office (202) 234-9382; home (202) 265-6449; email ralphestes@yahoo.com