You're a management consultant who has been asked by Green Company to help design an ethics communication and training program for all Green Company employees. Your meetings to date have been with the head of human resources, and your contract with the company has been negotiated with him. Once the papers have been signed, you begin your research and are quickly stymied by Green's corporate counsel. He says you will not be allowed to ask employees about ethical dilemmas that have occurred at Green. He specifically asked you to get your information from other sources such as press accounts of problems in the industry, or from other organizations you've worked with.
In addition, the head of human resources has told you that you'll be unable to meet the three most senior executives because they're busy negotiating a large acquisition. You will have access to other high-level members who can tell you what they think the seniors want.
You're instructed to write a code of conduct for the company and a mission statement, and to prepare presentations for the senior managers to give to employees sometime next month on corporate expectations and values.
Based on what you know about developing ethical cultures and programs, identify the problems presented by this case.
Why do you think the corporate counsel has responded in this way? What will be your response to him, if any?
As a consultant, what are your ethical obligations, if any?
How will you proceed?

Selected information about income statement accounts for the reed company is presented below (the company's fiscal year ends on december 31): 2018 2017sales $ 4,400,000 $ 3,500,000cost of goods sold 2,860,000 2,000,000administrative expenses 800,000 675,000selling expenses 360,000 312,000interest revenue 150,000 140,000interest expense 200,000 200,000loss on sale of assets of discontinued component 50,000 —on july 1, 2018, the company adopted a plan to discontinue a division that qualifies as a component of an entity as defined by gaap. the assets of the component were sold on september 30, 2018, for $50,000 less than their book value. results of operations for the component (included in the above account balances) were as follows: 1/1/18-9/30/18 2017 sales $ 400,000 $ 500,000 cost of goods sold (290,000 ) (320,000 )administrative expenses (50,000 ) (40,000 )selling expenses (20,000 ) (30,000 )operating income before taxes $ 40,000 $ 110,000 in addition to the account balances above, several events occurred during 2018 that have not yet been reflected in the above accounts: a fire caused $50,000 in uninsured damages to the main office building. the fire was considered to be an infrequent but not unusual event.inventory that had cost $40,000 had become obsolete because a competitor introduced a better product. the inventory was sold as scrap for $5,000.income taxes have not yet been recorded.required: prepare a multiple-step income statement for the reed company for 2018, showing 2017 information in comparative format, including income taxes computed at 40% and eps disclosures assuming 300,000 shares of common stock. (amounts to be deducted should be indicated with a minus sign. round eps answers to 2 decimal places.)