Attention to ethical issues will increase as evaluators become more involved in political issues

Attention to ethical issues will increase as evaluators become more involved in political issues. The present evaluation Standards and Guiding Principles— and their descendants—provide a means for maintaining the credibility of evaluation and educating others about codes and ethics in an increasingly politicized environment. Professional accountants have strengthened their ethical codes and training of practitioners in the face of public disillusionment concerning the “independent” role of accountants in reviewing the financial practices of corporations (Fitzpatrick, 1999). Evaluators can avoid the debacle that the Arthur Andersen Accounting firm faced in its auditing of Enron, and those that Standard and Poors and other bond rating firms endured as their high-rated bonds fell in the economic crisis of 2009, by strengthening the ethical education of current and future evaluators.