The Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of T&T (ICATT) is hoping public legislation will soon come on stream covering a wider range of rules and regulations. This will enable greater transparency, especially as T&T struggles to improve its corruption perception ranking, the group said.
ICATT is the body that represents the country’s tax professionals and is a major stakeholder in tax administration.
“The council recognises the limitations of the legislation under which we currently operate. That is the private legislation and its limitations.
“We are prepared to look at the next step, which is perhaps public legislation, which will throw a wider net in terms of regulations,” ICATT CEO Esther Le Gendre explained.
She said the ICATT council implemented new rules and regulations from January 1 which entailed comprehensive initiatives to comply with international requirements.
“These new rules promote transparency and accountability and improve ICATT’s ability to regulate and discipline members. Overall, the change is also important for the public as it mirrors high-quality, professional service,” Le Gendre said.
She said the council has started to examine how legislation can be strengthened as relates to its role as regulator of the accountancy profession. One desired outcome of that change will be to bring the operations of all accountants under ICATT’s purview.
“The existing private member legislation under which ICATT currently operates means members voluntarily submit to the regulations of the Institute. This has been outpaced by the challenges facing the industry both locally and globally.
“Public legislation that already governs the major professional groupings—the legal and medical professions, for example—are possible examples to emulate, so if we do have public legislation it’s not going to be a unique position but we will probably be the last of the major professional bodies to be so covered,” she said.
However, it’s solely up to Government to institute public legislation. ICATT can only recommend.
Stronger public legislation can help the regulator to enforce rules and regulations, create greater transparency and support the efforts of Government, other regulators and private stakeholders. It can manage and aid in anti-money-laundering, combat financing of terrorism, prevention of creative accounting and fraud control.
Creative accounting is the exploitation of loopholes in financial regulation to gain an advantage or present figures in a misleadingly favourable light.
Among the major changes is the definition of just who is considered to be an accountant in public practice. The updated definition is internationally aligned and the regulatory net of the institute has been widened.
In addition, the processes and procedures for the licensing of members to practice have been strengthened.
ICATT, like any other financial entity, has had its fair share of members engaging in untoward activities, including financial fraud. Whether this figure is worrying to the organisation, Le Gendre described it as “regular” but the organisation has a rigorous system in place to deal with such matters. We do have reports of indiscretion involving members and we look at those but this figure is no different from any of the other major professions.
“If there are complaints these go through a process where they reach our disciplinary committee. If that committee finds there’s a prima facie case made out the member is heard. If there’s a finding one way or the other the member does have the right of appeal,” Le Gendre said.
The 47-year-old accounting body is also an NGO supported financially only by members’ dues and surpluses from member events such as the annual finance and accounting conference.
“So there’s a clear challenge as well to meet members’ expectations of a modern member organisation and continuously remain up-to-date with technology to facilitate continuous learning and business support,” Le Gendre explained.
The industry is not exempted from other issues, including the need to always keep abreast with international standards and trends. In this vein, Le Gendre noted that the ICATT is looking at enhancing and growing professional skills.
She said: “Our accountants and auditors are all certified professionals but post qualification there’s a lot to do to keep our members abreast of the changes and there are many and frequent changes to international reporting standards.
“The challenge has been to create a more level playing field for those involved in the work of accounting.” L
Luckily, ICATT hasn’t experienced a brain drain as has been the case in other professional sectors.
“All good accountants have work and there are a lot of opportunities. There are more than 300 accountants who come from ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) annually and those flow into the larger and smaller firms and into the private and public sectors.
“The fact that we have a good number of students has really caused ICATT to look at Trinidad and Tobago’s potential for BPO (business process outsourcing) operations based on the very rich numbers we have of qualified persons in the accounting field,” Le Gendre noted.
BPO is the contracting of non-primary business activities and functions to a third-party provider. Services include payroll, human resources, accounting and customer/call centre relations. BPO is also known as information technology enabled services (ITES).
Enriching job
Le Gendre has held the position of ICATT CEO for the past four years. It’s a post she describes as challenging yet rewarding.
“If a job is not challenging it’s probably not worth doing if you are interested in professional growth and personal development. I lead a small secretariat which services a council and several sub-committees of the council.
“All members are professionals employed elsewhere in the accounting and auditing industry and so there is a fair degree of reliance on the secretariat for implementation and operation,” she said.
About ICATT
ICATT was established by an Act of Parliament in 1970. Its responsibilities include training, development, and sustainability of the accounting profession through education, and lobbying the government on matters of national interest.
The organisation currently has approximately 1,500 active members who operate in all sectors of the economy and Government. It adheres to the ethical code of integrity, objectivity, professional competence, confidentiality, and professional behaviour.
ICATT’s international affiliates include the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants, Chartered Professional Accountants Canada, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, American Institute of CPAs, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean.
It also maintains strategic relations with various stakeholders, including state regulatory agencies, the Bankers’ Association of T&T (BATT) and local trade associations.
ICATT is a member of the International Federation of Accountants and T&T was one of the first countries to fully adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), formerly International Accounting Standards, as well as the more recently adopted IFRS for SMEs in 2010.
It has also successfully engaged in the practice monitoring initiative which is intended to serve the interest of the public.
The practice monitoring process involves visiting licensed auditors and firms and reviewing their audit files to verify whether they have complied with International Standards on Auditing (ISA). It is an important component of the self-regulatory functions of the accountancy profession.