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Are accountants overrating themselves?

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Demand has seen thousands of working individuals flocking back to school to improve their skills and acquire additional knowledge, with the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) emerging as one of the most sought-after academic courses in the country.

Public perception of accountants is much lower than what members of the profession think of themselves, a survey released by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has revealed.

Also read: Survey reveals how much ACCA members are paid

According to the survey that was done worldwide and released at the end of August this year by the global accountants body, 73 per cent of accountants say that the general public thinks accountants are trustworthy compared to 55 per cent of the general public.

This means that members of the profession may be having a skewed perception of themselves while the public thinks otherwise.

A total of 261 accountants and 1,500 members of the public from different parts of the world were surveyed with results showing that the difference in public perception is closely linked to the global financial crisis which was partly as a result of excessive risk taking and inadequate disclosures.
In Kenya, recent boardroom wars at listed companies have led to the exposure of unethical practices in which audit firms and accountants have been implicated.

Anthony Kariuki, ACCA Kenya country manager said that members of the public feel that the accounting profession is responsible some of the unethical practices leading to the low perception.

Offering value

“They (accountants) believe that they are offering value but the public may feel that they are responsible for some of the issues but definitely there is room for improvement,” said Mr Kariuki who however added that there is a large group of people who purport to be accountants and are not members of professional bodies.

According to the survey, 70 per cent of the accountants surveyed globally agreed that the profession is responsible for the financial crisis.

A similar number said that the profession is responsible for excessive corporate cost cutting while 80 per cent blamed it for tax avoidance by companies and high-net-worth individuals meaning that accountants also blame themselves for unethical practices.

“About 76 per cent of the accountants surveyed said that the profession is at fault for public distrust in the motives and behaviour of business, highlighting the urgent need for practitioners to bolster standing in society,” notes the survey.

However, even with the low perception of the profession, majority of the public say that they make a valuable contribution to the running of business accountancy bodies, have a key role to play in ensuring that accountants act responsibly and that the profession is key to helping companies act ethically towards stakeholders.

Slightly more than half (51 per cent) of the public said that accountants only work on behalf of their companies or themselves, rather than in the public interest while 54 per cent said that accountants need “integrity and ethical behaviour”

“We were not that surprised to see these findings in the report. ACCA had already said, some four years ago, in fact at the height of the financial crisis, that naivety had its part to play, with well-meaning people — including accountants —succumbing to the seductions of advanced risk management techniques,” notes the survey.

The global accountant’s body said that ACCA members are trained to make professional judgements which are rooted in an ethical approach.

Its members are bound by a code of conduct which requires them to balance their clients’ interests with the public interest and to ensure that any information they provide to tax authorities on behalf of their clients is not false or misleading, or omits or obscures key data.

“We encourage employers to hire people who are in professional bodies and there is a lot of education to this,” said Mr Kariuki who added that examinations that lead to the accountancy qualification provide specific knowledge on the profession.

The global accounting body says that it has 154,000 members and 432,000 students worldwide who are at different stages of their careers.

After completion of the global examination, candidates meet some of the requirements for joining the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya which is the professional organisation that regulates the activities of all accounting professionals in the country.