Chartered accountants: Farmers, hunters, or herdsmen (with out ak-47)?
Here we’re in Abuja for the 50th Annual Accountants Conference of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria [ICAN] which is scheduled to run from April fifth to April ninth, 2021. In our midst is the President of the International Federation of Accountants, Mr Alan Johnson.
50 is a magic quantity. The President of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales [ICAEW], Mr David Matthews (Ex-KPMG) has despatched me the next message:
“From our records, you have been a member of our Institute for over fifty years. Congratulations.”
Hence, it’s tempting to replicate on the yr 2003/2004 which for me was epochal because it was my privilege and honour, as Chief Host and President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, to preside over the 33rd Annual Accountants Conference, in Abuja.
On that auspicious event, the Guest of Honour was the President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR. He had the choice of sending a consultant however I stay grateful to him for the honour he accorded the Institute by declaring the convention open himself. To his everlasting credit score, he arrived proper on time and proceeded to ship a wonderful however pungent handle that didn’t pull any punches. His message was clear – Chartered Accountants had in his view not lived as much as expectations!
Indeed, when a delegation of Past Presidents of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria paid him a courtesy name on the Presidential Villa he induced panic when he bluntly demanded:
“Where is the money?”
He was referring to circumstances the place Chartered Accountants had been alleged to have been concerned in corruption and looting of the treasury.
Perhaps I ought to add that even earlier than then, Prince (Justice) Ambassador Bola Ajibola SAN a really shut buddy of President Obasanjo (they each attended Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta) whereas serving because the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (from 1985 to 1991) underneath General Ibrahim Babangida had publicly accused chartered accountants of duplicitously signing two completely different units of accounts for his or her shoppers to be able to help them to evade taxation or no matter. The answer he got here up with was that experiences of the Auditors must be countersigned by his skilled colleagues – legal professionals !!
No marvel that in “Merchant of Venice” William Shakespeare delivered a dire exhortation:
“First let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Anyway, going again to 2003/2004 the inventory and repute of Chartered Accountants had been underneath a cloud. When the searchlight was beamed on us we had no possibility however to robustly defend our integrity. It is for others to guage whether or not we succeeded solely or failed woefully.
As issues stand, our primacy within the administration and regulation of the accountancy career are underneath risk not solely by the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria [ANAN] who’ve been competing with us since they obtained recognition by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2010 and are additionally members of the International Federation of Accountants [IFAC], we even have unresolved points with the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria concerning whether or not members of our Institute can supply companies/consultancy on tax issues until they’re registered with the Nigerian Institute of Taxation.
We are additionally underneath assault from those that are decided to balkanize our career by creating separate our bodies for Forensic Accounting; Public Accounts; Local Government Accounts; Receivership and Liquidations, and so forth.
I have to rapidly add that I’ve no private points with whoever is pursuing such an agenda.
In a democracy, which is what our nation proffers to be, freedom of affiliation is assured underneath the Constitution. Indeed, it’s a cardinal precept within the train of basic human rights.
What is required is for Chartered Accountants to be further vigilant within the pursuit {of professional} excellence and impregnable ethics in addition to sturdy defence of our integrity.
Indeed, it’s most gratifying that amongst the audio system at this yr’s convention is Mr Mohammed Mani, Executive Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service. The final time we checked, he didn’t seem like a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria [ICAN].
I perceive he’s a Fellow of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria. Of course, he’s most welcome. Sentiments and prejudice are to not be confused with actuality, realism and pragmatism.
Perhaps it’s too late within the day to start to wail and lament that the commanding heights of our nation’s monetary panorama and financial system which was the unique protect of Chartered Accountants have steadily crumbled attributable to heavy artillery (underneath at first the army authorities and subsequently by the civilian authorities) at the moment are occupied by these of different ilks.
In 2003/2004 our fellow Chartered Accountants held the next positions (and I stand to be corrected):
- Minister of Finance
- Auditor-General of The Federation
- Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service
- Accountant-General of The Federation
- Governor of The Central Bank of Nigeria
- And others too many to be counted.
The sample was additionally replicated within the thirty-six states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Indeed, a few of it’s possible you’ll recall that each the late Past President of ICAN, Chief Oluwole Adeosun, and I mounted the stage and at my prompting, he conceded that maybe he was being overloaded as Minister of Transport, Aviation and Communications, all on the similar time !!
Perhaps I ought to have made my very own confession that I used to be on the age of practically sixty combining being President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria with being the Chairman and Chief Executive of KPMG Nigeria along with being the Chairman of KPMG Africa. I used to be additionally a member of the International Council of KPMG and a member of the Committee of Accountants in Business of the International Federation of Accountants.
Some of you may additionally bear in mind that I’ve been a newspaper columnist for 50 years along with writing thirty books of which most likely the very best identified is “THE GODFATHER NEVER SLEEPS.”
I’m not certain that each one these are a match for the tempo set by my late father, Chief J.Okay. Randle who held most likely the three most vital positions in Lagos – Lisa of Lagos (Prime Minister); Chairman Lagos Island Club; and Chairman of Lagos Race (Horse Racing) Club. He was solely 47 years previous when he died in 1956.
As for whether or not Chartered Accountants belong to the identical class as farmers, it was Sir Ronald Leach who as Senior Partner of Peat Marwick Mitchell (later KPMG) from 1975 to 1977 who put issues succinctly:
“Chartered Accountants are like farmers – we reap what we sow. Most importantly, our ethics, integrity and reputation are the fertilizers of our sacred profession. Whatever we do (or do not do), public trust is paramount.”
It was when Sir Colin Sharman turned the Chairman of KPMG (1991 to 1999) that he canvassed a considerably completely different perspective and profoundly completely different message by blowing the hunter’s whistle – chartered accountants need to hunt for brand spanking new concepts, and crucially shift from being re-active to being pro-active. In different phrases, our consideration ought to shift to the longer term wants of our shoppers. According to him, shoppers are usually not up to now (as mirrored within the audited accounts). What is of utmost concern to them is the longer term, particularly the sustainability of their enterprise. The credit score for publishing the agency’s accounts belongs to him and the innovation was additional amplified by his successors.
When Michael Rake turned the Chairman of KPMG, (2002 to 2007) the music modified much more dramatically. He got here out with a daring and blunt assertion.
“Kill what you eat; and eat what you kill.”
It galvanized momentum and legitimized aggressiveness within the pursuit of objectives. No extra frequent pool. The tradition had modified in favor of the efficiency/reward equation and matrix as a nicely sturdy matrix.
We had been herdsmen (however with out AK-47 rifles). We had been not pastoral settlers however herdsmen ever able to enterprise into hitherto forbidden territory (e.g. China and Russia).
Culled from The Alvin Report
