CSC Professional Standards & Best Practices 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which action best demonstrates adherence to confidentiality standards when a consultant is approached by a journalist about a client engagement?
- Provide only publicly available information and decline to confirm or discuss any client details
- Share high-level findings since they do not contain proprietary data
- Confirm the engagement exists but decline to discuss specifics
- Refer the journalist to the client's communications team and say nothing further (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Refer the journalist to the client's communications team and say nothing further
Referring media inquiries directly to the client's communications team ensures the client controls its own narrative without any accidental disclosure.
Question 2: A senior consultant is managing two concurrent client engagements in the same industry. To manage conflict of interest appropriately, the consultant should:
- Disclose both engagements to each client and obtain written consent if any conflict exists (Correct answer)
- Keep the engagements fully separate and trust professional judgment to prevent information crossover
- Resign from one engagement to eliminate any potential conflict
- Only disclose if directly asked by a client about other active engagements
Correct answer: Disclose both engagements to each client and obtain written consent if any conflict exists
Proactive disclosure and written client consent are required when concurrent engagements create real or perceived conflicts of interest.
Question 3: During an engagement, a consultant learns that a client employee is engaging in financial fraud unrelated to the project scope. The consultant's professional obligation is to:
- Ignore it since it falls outside the consulting engagement scope
- Immediately report it to law enforcement without informing the client
- Consult with the engagement partner and follow the firm's ethics escalation protocol (Correct answer)
- Document the observation and include it in the final project report
Correct answer: Consult with the engagement partner and follow the firm's ethics escalation protocol
Discovered illegal activity must be escalated through the firm's ethics and legal channels, not handled unilaterally by the individual consultant.
Question 4: What is the primary purpose of a Statement of Work (SOW) in a consulting engagement?
- To establish the billing rate structure and payment schedule
- To define deliverables, timelines, responsibilities, and scope boundaries for both parties (Correct answer)
- To satisfy regulatory requirements for professional service contracts
- To outline the qualifications and experience of the consulting team
Correct answer: To define deliverables, timelines, responsibilities, and scope boundaries for both parties
The SOW serves as the mutual agreement on scope, deliverables, timelines, and responsibilities, preventing misalignment between consultant and client.
Question 5: A client pressures a senior consultant to backdate a deliverable submission to meet an internal audit deadline. The consultant should:
- Comply to protect the client relationship and avoid project failure
- Refuse and explain that falsifying submission dates violates professional and potentially legal standards (Correct answer)
- Backdate only if the actual work was substantially complete by the original date
- Seek approval from the engagement partner before deciding
Correct answer: Refuse and explain that falsifying submission dates violates professional and potentially legal standards
Backdating documents is a form of falsification that violates professional integrity standards and may constitute fraud, regardless of circumstances.
Question 6: When a consulting firm uses a subcontractor to fulfill part of an engagement, professional standards require that:
- The subcontractor's involvement remains undisclosed to protect the firm's proprietary vendor relationships
- The client is informed and the subcontractor is held to the same confidentiality and quality standards (Correct answer)
- The subcontractor signs only the consulting firm's internal NDAs, not the client's agreements
- The subcontractor is supervised only on deliverables the client will directly review
Correct answer: The client is informed and the subcontractor is held to the same confidentiality and quality standards
Clients must be informed of subcontractors, and all parties handling client data must be bound to equivalent confidentiality and quality standards.
Question 7: A senior consultant's personal investment portfolio includes stock in a company the consultant is advising on a merger. What should the consultant do?
- Sell the stock immediately and disclose the prior holding to the client
- Disclose the investment to the client and recuse from decisions that could affect the stock price (Correct answer)
- Keep the investment since professional advice is objective regardless of personal holdings
- Transfer the stock to a family member to remove the direct conflict
Correct answer: Disclose the investment to the client and recuse from decisions that could affect the stock price
Disclosure and recusal from decisions affecting the investment are required to manage a direct financial conflict of interest ethically.
CSC Professional Standards & Best Practices 3
Which action best demonstrates adherence to confidentiality standards when a consultant is approached by a journalist about a client engagement?