CIMA and ICMA in ‘copycat’ drama

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Sri Lanka branch has filed a complaint of ‘unfair trade practice’ with the Consumer Affairs Authority over the use of CIMA’s registered post-nominals (acronym of the qualifications) by the newly incorporated Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA).

The local CIMA headquarters

ICMA was recently incorporated under an Act of Parliament which stipulates that the associate and fellow qualifications, ACMA and FCMA, as well as the term ‘Certified Management Accountant’ is for the exclusive use of ICMA Sri Lanka. Furthermore, any person who contravenes the provision is guilty of an offence.

CIMA CEO Bradley Emerson told the Sunday Times FT that CIMA has been using ACMA and FCMA as post-nominals since it started years ago and is registered with the Intellectual Property office under the Intellectual Property Act 36 of 2003. “Based on the registration of the post-nominals, CIMA has followed the correct process in alerting the Consumer Authority and submitting its case.

We maintained that what ICMA is doing amounts to unfair trade practice and creates confusion,” he said. “We are yet to hear from the Consumer Authority.” He did not comment when asked if CIMA will go to court to resolve the issue.

Mr. Emerson said CIMA only found out about the post-nominals after seeing the draft bill and were subsequently called for a meeting with the parliamentary consultative committee the day before the bill was submitted to Parliament. Mr. Emerson said CIMA was supportive of the initiative but raised concerns over the use of ACMA and FCMA by ICMA.

The ICMA office

He said that ICMA is suddenly changing their accreditation from ASCMA and FSCMA to what is now being used and paid for by members of CIMA over the past 40 years. He added that CIMA worked with ICMA prior to the Act being passed and said ICMA’s curriculum is only 20% of CIMA’s.

Mr. Emerson said the CIMA syllabus has been drafted through international research from 12,000 corporate leaders in 5,000 global companies. “CIMA is the next generation qualification,” he said. Mr. Emerson also said CIMA members have expressed enormous concerns that ICMA is duplicating CIMA’s qualification which has been globally recognized. “Shadow branding will have long term consequences for children who are getting this qualification.”

A CIMA Fellow told the Sunday Times FT that the Act has come into operation without taking into consideration all the facts such as CIMA’s registration of the post-nominals. “According to the Act, anyone who is using FCMA and ACMA, whether it’s on their visiting cards, is committing an offence,” he said. “CIMA got a very limited time to respond and raise objections before the bill went to Parliament.” He also said that the term ‘Certified Management Accountant’ is a generic term. “There is a CMA in Canada and Australia. They will also have to get permission from the Sri Lanka council to use the post-nominals.”

In response, President of ICMA Lakshman Watawala said local qualifications should take precedence over foreign qualifications and that it is logical for CIMA to insert UK in parentheses after their FCMA and ACMA qualifications in order to indicate it is an international qualification although Mr. Emerson said ICMA has never formally communicated this and cannot in any way force CIMA to implement such changes. “We have an Act of Parliament now and we have to give place to national bodies,” Mr. Watawala said.

“There was a half day’s debate and it was unanimously approved in Parliament.” The Bill was presented to Parliament by Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Trade, Marketing Development, Consumer Affairs and Co-operatives.

Mr. Watawala explained that FCMA, ACMA and other qualifications such as FCA and ACA are not restricted to one country but used by all countries which have chartered or management bodies. “They are differentiated by putting the country of origin. The degree is accepted and that’s the practice,” he said.

Before placing the Bill in Parliament, Mr. Watawala said it was discussed at many meetings of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, which he also briefed. He added that members from the government and opposition and other accounting bodies such as CIMA were also invited for the meetings and changes were made according to their requests. Mr. Watawala said the Consultative Committee found that there will be no confusion because it was decided professionals can differentiate between local and foreign qualifications.

Mr. Watawala said Sri Lanka needed a national body for management accountants offering qualifications at affordable rates to the public and was therefore incorporated by an Act of Parliament.
Mr. Watawala explained that globally, there are two fields of professional accountants, chartered and management, accepted by international accounting bodies such as the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA).

He explained that CMA was set up in 2000 to meet the deficiency or lack of a management accounting body in Sri Lanka but two such bodies exist in all South Asian countries including India, Bangladesh and Pakistan and in places like the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. He also said the fees for the ICMA qualification stand at Rs.50,000 while CIMA charges much more.

Past CIMA Presidents also weighed in on the controversy, giving differing opinions on the issue. One former CIMA President, who declined to be named, said CIMA has a legitimate argument in objecting to ICMA using the same exact post-nominals in its qualifications.

He said he does not think CIMA objects to ICMA being here but rather having to do with the qualification. “It is a free world and institutes are welcome to set themselves up, even in a field that another entity is in. CIMA has been around for a much longer time than ICMA and CIMA has a right to be aggrieved because it is misleading.”

Another former CIMA President said if CIMA had a good Council, it would have taken the matter up with the relevant ministries prior to the ICMA Act being passed. The local CIMA Council was suspended in December 2008 which remains in effect to date.

The suspended Council members have since filed a fundamental rights petition which was postponed in July 2009 to be heard in the Supreme Court in November this year. This former President said there might be some confusion regarding the post-nominals but that ICMA was able to act fast because the CIMA Council was not in operation.

“The ICMA qualification is not a copycat qualification,” he said. Subsequent to the suspension of the CIMA Council, CIMA UK has appointed a five member consultative group to conduct the affairs of the local council.