Urges Profession to Challenge Gov’t Policies that will harm Economies.
OUTGOING president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean, Frank Myers, has challenged the profession to take its place at the table whenever solutions to the region’s problems are being crafted.
Addressing the recent 33rd. annual conference of Caribbean accountants in Trinidad, Myers opined that by dint of their training, expertise and relevant experience, chartered accountants were well placed to contribute to the region’s future progress.
He also issued a call to action to members, urging accountability and transparency from the region’s governments in the transaction of the people’s business. Myers urged accountants to “shed the image ascribed to us as historians who have limited use” and to instead demonstrate that “we have the knowledge, experience, and expertise to contribute meaningfully to the region’s economic progression”.
He went on: “We must be willing to speak out when policies are implemented that will damage our economies. We need to not only criticize, but offer viable alternatives. We need to position ourselves so that we can guide the changes required both in the government and private sectors, and we need to speak as one voice right across the region, irrespective of borders”.
According to Myers, a partner at KPMG Eastern Caribbean, the continuous development of ICAC was critical to the profession’s role in the region and that was reflected in its rolling strategic plan.
This, he said, required the best leadership available. ICAC recently commissioned a review of its governance structure to ensure, among other things, that the individuals who sit on its board of directors, have the skills and competence to direct the regional profession. He added: “This sort of thinking demands that we recognize that ICAC is the apex of the profession in the region, not the individual institute members”.
Myers took a swipe at the regional integration movement noting that individual CARICOM countries were unwilling to give up their sovereignty for the greater good.
“See where this has got us”, he went on. “Some 30, 40, 50 years after independence, all our countries are unable to stand on our own feet, relying on the goodwill of third parties who have no friends but only interests, unable to understand the simple adage ‘unity is strength’.
All the countries in the region are in varying degrees of financial difficulty. Some have home grown recovery programmes and others have requested assistance from the international funding agencies. However, it is generally accepted that we can do better if only our governments could better utilize the resources entrusted to them”.
He called for “the removal of the aura of secrecy that governs the way we do business” and for “transparency and accountability in government”.
According to Myers, one of the issues was that the methods of accounting used by governments did not lend itself to this. “The cash or modified cash basis dominates and those governments that have spoken of the adoption of accrual accounting are not moving fast enough. The ultimate result of this is the bad decision making that accompanies bad financial information”, Myers said.
The outgoing president cited the need for ICAC and accountants “to add our voices to the clamour for the adoption of IPSAS (International Public Sector Accounting Standards) by our governments and to urge the era of transparency and accountability”.
He added: “We need to recognize our role in creating the environment that will attract the foreign direct investment that we always hear about, not on terms that require us to give away the shop, but rather in circumstances that are mutually beneficial”.