Call for better financial management to curb malpractices across the world : ACCA CEO
View(s):Public sector financial management is a huge issue all over the world and many of the economic problems of the world could be addressed through better financial management in the public sector, adopting governance and standards and best practices in the state sector, in accordance with the laid down international standards.
These comments were made by Ms Helen Brand, Chief Executive, ACCA (Association of Certified Chartered Accountants), UK responding to a question by the Business Times (BT) during an interview in Colombo last week.
Her comments imply that the economic crisis the world is facing now could largely be attributed to financial mismanagement of governments and lack of transparency. She said that the ACCA is working hard to promote the adoption of international standards in the public sector. Ms. Brand said, “I think it is more important to increase the capacity within the public sector
Hellen Brand
for good financial management.”
The BT pointed out to her that while in other democracies in the world where business is for the people, in Sri Lanka the government is involved in more and more business activities and encroaching on the people’s domain. The government being the servant and the people being the master has become the other way around here in Sri Lanka, it was pointed out to her.
In response, she said believes that today all governments have that tendency and it is not confined to Sri Lanka alone. “It would be exactly the same. We expect all our members who are in the public sector also to abide by the same strict ethical code of ACCA. I think you are right.” She stressed the need to train and absorb more and more qualified and disciplined professional accountants to the public sector.
She said today governments have realized the need for better financial management of state affairs and cited the example in the UK where the government has seriously taken up the issue of professionalization of its financial management and increased substantially the number of qualified accountants in accountancy work in the public sector.
Ms. Brand said that other countries like New Zealand for many years have adopted best practices in its public financial management. So there is a big movement, she noted, towards that in many countries, including some emerging economies. For example the national audit office in China has been undertaking training for ACCA for around 20 years.
Commenting on the affairs of ACCA, she said that it is a global body of professional accountants and has 162,000 members and 428,000 students in 170 countries around world. She said, “We have offices in 89 of those countries. It is very much a professional global body based in the UK.”
In Sri Lanka there are about 300 members and about 3,000 students.
Comparatively their numbers are little low but steps are afoot to increase these numbers.
She said that she had very fruitful discussions with the Minister of Higher Education, employers and business leaders here in Sri Lanka and said that they have pointed out that Sri Lanka needs more professionally qualified accountants despite the fact that some trained qualified Sri Lankan accountants are employed in other countries.
She said that their syllabus also covers international financial reporting standards since 1994. She said, “So we are very much focused on that, producing accountants to the global market as well as it caters to national needs of countries”.
She said that ACCA accountants have to look carefully at the role they play and change some of the adverse things that have happened to ensure that they would not occur in the future.
She said that they have increased the emphasis on those violating their code of ethics and those found guilty would be severely dealt with punishment, even going to the extent of removing them from ACCA membership.
She said that it is not the profession or the system that is wrong but the individual who resorts to wrongdoing.