Golden Jubilee celebrations of ICAG—an overview
Accountants work as auditors and provide assurance for the proper functioning of the financial markets. Accountants work in business, contributing to the quality of financial information and promoting strong corporate governance and ethics within their organizations. Accountants also work in government and help to ensure that public resources are effectively and efficiently managed.
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The accountant, therefore, has the responsibility of guarding the assets of corporate entities and is expected to help improve upon governance and financial management in order to promote growth and stability.
By these various roles, accountants serve the market, their organizations or the public sector and thereby, contribute to the development of a viable economy and eventually to wealth-creation and improvement in the living standards of the people.
Thus the efficient management of the country’s resources requires an efficient and effective accounting system to ensure the prudent collation of accurate and reliable data for policy formulation, good governance and economic growth and development,
Efforts, spearheaded by Dr. R. S. Amegashie, Messrs Harry Dodoo, Awuku Darko and Boakye Agyemang of blessed memory, and others, laid the foundations for the establishment of a local professional accountancy body, culminating in the passage of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1963 (Act 170) on April 19, 1963 and the development of a viable accountancy profession in Ghana.
By this law (Act 170), the Institute of Chartered Accountants-Ghana (ICAG) was born and charged with the responsibility of regulating all matters concerning the accountancy profession in Ghana including the conduct of local examinations.
By this law, ICAG became the sole institution in Ghana with the right to award the Chartered Accountant designation and the right to regulate the accountancy profession in Ghana.
ICAG, headed by a president, is governed by an eleven-member Council which holds office for two years and is administered by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
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The current president of ICAG is Prof. Kwame Bosiako Omane-Antwi. He has Mr Christian Sotie as his vice while Mr Frederick Nana Kweku Moore is the CEO.
One most spectacular development in the history of the Institute is the acquisition of its own office building and an accountancy school, also called Accountancy Village, which was inaugurated by the Vice President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, on the 25th of May, 2012 at Okponglo, East Legon, on the Trinity-IPS road.
The Institute was first located in the Cocoa House buildings, from where it relocated to Swanmill, formerly the UAC building (now Unilever).
With the growth of the Institution, its secretariat was moved into a three-storey building on the Asafoatse Nettey Road, near Accra Metropolitan Assembly, allocated to it by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government.
Since its establishment, ICAG has made significant contributions to human capital development through its examination programmes. These are the Chartered Accountant’s (CA) Professional Programme and the Technician Programme, Accounting Technician Scheme West Africa (ATSWA).
Currently, the Institute has embarked upon a number of measures to enhance the calibre, quality and turnout of accountants. Study materials have been produced, special classes are being organized and a scholarship scheme introduced for all first class students of the country’s tertiary institutions.
In addition, the Institute, in collaboration with the country’s universities, is also working assiduously to improve upon accountancy education in Ghana.
To this effect, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with the University of Cape Coast (UCC) under which the syllabus of the UCC M.BA/ M.COM(Accounting Option) programme and the syllabus of the ICAG Part three and Part four qualifying examinations syllabus have been merged, as a result of which graduates from the UCC M.BA/M.COM (Accounting Option) programme will be exempted from the Part three examinations of the ICAG and adequately prepared to write the Part four of the qualifying examination.
There are also similar arrangements with the University of Ghana Business School, Institute of Professional Studies and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Business School.
In its agenda of improving the accountancy profession in Ghana, ICAG has decided to support members of the Institute to specialize and enhance their efficiency.
Accordingly, the ICAG Council has approved eight Post-Graduate Diploma Courses to be run by the Institute. These courses include Oil and Gas Accounting, Fraud and Forensic Accounting, Treasury and Risk Management, Internal Auditing and Governance, and Charity Accounting and Financial Management. Indeed, the Institute has successfully completed running the maiden sessions of two of the courses, namely Forensic Audit and the Oil and Gas Accounting which aim at equipping participants with practical knowledge to improve on their job performance and provide local content for emerging areas of the economy.
Apart from improving or enhancing accountancy education, ICAG has taken steps to improve on financial reporting standards in accordance with current trends in global financial reporting. Thus in January 2007, the Institute, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Bank of Ghana, National Insurance Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, officially launched the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Ghana.
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This was followed by the launch of the adoption and implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards for Small and Medium Size Entities (IFRS for SMEs) and the International Standards on Auditing (ISA) in January, this year.
Under the scheme, IFRS for SMEs are to be applied to all accounts with financial periods ending on or after 31st December 2013 while ISA reports are to be used for all audit reports issued on or after December 31st, 2011.
ICAG has also established an Audit Quality Monitoring Unit with the responsibility of conducting reviews of audit assignments executed by licensed members and firms for which sensitization seminars have been organized for the practising firms and regulators.
The Institute is a member of three International bodies, namely the Association of Accountancy Bodies in West Africa (ABWA)— a regional grouping of accountancy bodies in West Africa, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)— a worldwide association of accountancy bodies which has its headquarters in New York, United States of America and the Pan-African Federation of Accountants (PAFA)— a continental association comprising 39 professional accountancy organizations from 35 countries.
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The Institute has been mentoring the Liberian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (LICPA) and has, therefore, opened an examination centre in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, for the professional CA programme – the maiden examination having been written in May 2011.
With a financial membership of 3,500 and a student population of 7, 000, members of ICAG are serving in public practice as auditors; in academia as lecturers; in business as accountants, internal auditors and finance executives; and as entrepreneurs as chief executives, among others.
Members of ICAG are also in politics as Members of Parliament and Ministers of State; and in international organisations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (AfDB), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations International Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), among others.
The year-long celebration of the golden jubilee of the Institute was marked with a series of public lectures which focussed on corruption and accountability.
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The first of the public lectures took place in Takoradi on the topic: ‘Rendering corruption unattractive in Ghana;’ the second in Kumasi on the topic: ‘Can corruption be eradicated in Ghana?’ while the last lecture took place in Accra on the topic: ‘Accountability in the public sector—The professional’s perspective.’
At an impressive ceremony in Accra, dubbed the 50th Anniversary Graduation and Admission Ceremony, the 21st in a series and the second in the year 2013— due to the unprecedented high number of the pass rate at the May 2013 examinations of the ICAG— two hundred and fifty-four persons were admitted into membership of the Institute, while two hundred and sixty-eight Chartered Accountants, forty-three Chartered Diploma and 13 Ghanaian Accounting Technician Scheme of West Africa (ATSWA) graduands were also awarded certificates.
The celebrations came to an end with this year’s Annual Accountants’ Week, which began with a church service at Pentecost International Worship Centre at Atomic, a suburb of Accra attended bt the immediate past president, Mrs Angela Peasah, current president, Prof. K.wame Bosiako Omane-Antwi, Council members, Chief Executive Officer, Mr Frederick Nana Kweku Moore, and staff of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG)..
The Annual Accountants’ Week reached a climax on Saturday with an Awards and Dinner Dance which occasion was also used to invest Prof. Omane-Antwi into office as President of the ICAG while various awards, including that for all past presidents, past chief executive officers and their registrars, socio-political contribution to national development, winners of an essay competition and special awards were presented to deserving individuals.
Earlier, the 2014 Annual Accountants’ Conference had taken place, during which two lectures were delivered on the themes: ‘Restoring the Nation’s economy—The role of the Chartered Accountant’ and ‘The role of the Chartered Accountant—50 years and beyond.’
Throughout the year-long celebration of its 50th anniversary, which took place on the theme: ‘The role of the Chartered Accountant—50 years and beyond,’ what came out clear was that the effective management of public funds or prudent financial governance and a strong and effective financial control environment are essential components of good democratic governance.
It was also identified that public service remained the tool available to African governments for the implementation of developmental goals and objectives and that as a pivot for growth of African economies, public service was responsible for the creation of the appropriate and conducive environment in which all sectors of the economy could perform optimally.
Thus as a critical tool for improving the quality of public service outcomes and promoting and protecting democratic governance for enhanced economic growth in Africa, there was the need to improve upon public sector financial management systems and practices.
This, therefore, calls for a reversal of the trend where accountants preferred service in the private sector to that of the public sector.
The celebrations provided the platform to remind accountants of their calling to uphold the tenets of their profession and keep the wheels of the accountability and transparency machinery well-oiled and running in their various fields of endeavour, whether in the public or private sector of the country.
By that, it means that accountants have the responsibility to strengthen the economy by plugging all loopholes to ensure that the scarce resources of the state were judiciously utilized for steady economic growth and development.
Professional accountants have also been reminded of the need to understand the context in which businesses operate in order to be well-position to support government in the formulation of financial policies and the preparation of the national budget.
The celebrations provided the platform that drummed it home to all professional accountants to be conscious of their responsibilities to investors, to society and be guided by the principles of good corporate governance, effective internal control, proper risk assessment, professional and business ethics, and the highest standards of professional probity and competence.
Indeed, the reminder was also served that anytime codes of ethics are breached in the performance of their duties as accountants, professional integrity suffered and individual and institutional reputation are negatively affected.
These reminders come against the backcloth of World Bank ROSC report (2004), and disclosures at the Public Accounts Committee of Ghana’s Parliament that accounting and audit practices in Ghana have suffered from institutional weaknesses in accounting and audit practices, and in regulation, compliance and enforcement of standards and rules while significant compliant gaps in financial statements and the lack of implementation guidelines which hinder the application of auditing standards have been identified.
In all the remarks made on all the platforms of the Institute during the period of the anniversary celebrations, the immediate past president of the Institute, Mrs Angela Peasah, underscored the need for accountants to exhibit nothing short of the standards of transparency, accountability and probity.
Mrs Peassah, urged all accountants to be morally upright and resist the temptation to engage in corrupt and fraudulent accounting practices.
This, she said, demanded the strict observation of the five fundamental principles of the IFAC Code of Ethics, namely integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behaviour.
In other words, accountants must ensure that the accountancy profession is not negligently and disparagingly held in disrepute due to lack of adherence to its tenets and ethics.
For Mr Moore, accounting is the language of business and his expectation is that out of every five organisations, at least four of them should be headed by a chartered accountant, while all fresh inductees are to work hard to reach their highest potential in the next ten years.
These demands, it is important to note, cannot be met without ICAG itself playing its expected role of investing in the human capacity building of its members, i.e., the provision of quality accountancy training for prospective accountants and ensuring that the quality of accountancy education is not compromised in Ghana.
To this challenge, Prof. Omane-Antwi makes a definite commitment that accountancy profession was on a transformational journey and that he would lead the eleven-member Council of the ICAG to deliver on its mandate, change the face of the accountancy profession in Ghana and build an Institute to be proud of and that which would be relevant to government, industry and students as well.
The writer is an officer of the Information Services Department.
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