Financial Times

Battle for supremacy ends
Nishan Fernando elected ICASL vice president
Nishan Fernando, head of finance at Odel, has been elected as vice president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) for the year 2006/2007.

The institute is the sole accounting standards setting authority in Sri Lanka, and the application of such standards is mandatory for all companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

In a much anticipated battle for supremacy at the national accountancy body’s annual election, Nishan Fernando secured 704 of the 1367 vote cast to become the vice president of the institute by defeating his opponent N. R. Gajendran, president/partner of Gajma and Co, who secured 647 votes. Sixteen votes were rejected.

According to the law of the governing council of the institute, the vice president shall be the president for the ensuing year without contesting an election.

Yohan Perera, Partner KPMG Ford Rhodes Thornton and Co., who was last year’s vice president, is to be the president for 2006/2007. The voting was also held for electing six members to the council for the year 2006/2007. The six members elected were Sujeewa Mudalige, partner of Pricewaterhousecoopers, Sujeewa Rajapakse, partner of BDO Burah Hathy, Lakmali Nanayakkara, partner of Ernst and Young, Henanayaka Bandara, Deputy General Manager (finance and planning) of National Savings Banks, J.U.M.B. Jayasekara, Managing Director of JMC Institute and Lasantha Wickramasinghe, partner of B.R.De Silva and Co.

The other four members are appointed to the council by the Minister of Trade and Commerce.
The election at the institute this time was more intense than ever before as a large number of members took time to cast their votes.

Prominent professionals who hold key positions in both public and private sectors turned out for the election to cast their votes. Among them were Nivard Cabral, economic adviser to President Mahinda Rajapakse, Vivendra Lintotawela, chairman of John Keells Holdings, Hemaka Amarasuriya, chairman of Singer group, Amitha Goonaratne, CEO of Commercial Bank, Rajendra Thiagarajah, CEO of HNB, R.Renganathan, Deputy Chairman of Ceylinco group, and several other senior members of the institute.

Nishan Fernando in his acceptance speech said that his primary objective was to maintain and upgrade the image of the institute as a supreme national accountancy body and urged all the members to work towards that objective.
He also invited defeated candidate N.R Gajendran to join hands with him to develop the accountancy profession and the institute.

The institute has over 2,390 members, of whom approximately 600 are abroad, and over 16,000 registered students. Members of the institute describe themselves as "Chartered Accountants", and use the designatory letters "ACA" or "FCA" depending on whether they are Associates or Fellows of the institute.
The institute is a member of the International Federation of Accountants and the International Accounting Standards Committee. It is also a member of the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants, and a founder member of the South Asian Federation of Accountants.

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