ICPAK to deregister 698 over failure to pay subscription fee

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) is set to deregister non-compliant members in the next three weeks, it announced on Wednesday.

In a public notice, ICPAK said it has lined up 698 members for deregistration, mainly over failure to pay subscription fees.

“Take notice, therefore, that you have 21 days from the date of this notice to show cause why you should not be deregistered,” ICPAK said.

The institute has over 18,000 members, drawing a substantial part of its revenue from the annual subscription fees.

A senior official at the institute told the Business Daily that paying the subscription fee is a statutory requirement and a two-year default automatically leads to deregistration of a member.

The lobby, which has a watchdog role, regularly deregisters individuals who are either guilty of professional misconduct or have defaulted on membership fees.  

The latest deregistration exercise occurred early last year where about 1,050 individuals were affected.

ICPAK usually warns employers in the country not to risk hiring financial and accounting employees who are not bona-fide members of the institute after taking such an exercise.

Affected external auditors, heads of finance and audit of listed companies, banks and insurance firms are not allowed to practice until they are cleared.

Those holding other positions, including ordinary accounting jobs, can continue practising even without being members of the ICPAK, but miss out on benefits offered by the institute including professional training and international recognition.

Members deregistered are supposed to return the registration certificate.

The institute has four membership categories — non-practising, practising, overseas and associate.

Non-practising is open to members who have experience of three years or more. They pay Sh27,000 application fee and Sh11,200 annual subscription fee.

Practising members’ application fee is Sh10,000 with an annual subscription fee of Sh21,200.

Overseas membership attracts an application fee of Sh27,200 for Kenyan citizens and Sh29,200 for foreigners, while for associate members mostly Certified Public Accountants (CPA) graduates the application fee is Sh3,700 with an annual subscription fee of Sh3,200.

The lobby has been in the spotlight lately with a number of companies involved in accounting scandals.

The high profile ones included Uchumi Supermarkets and Kenya Airways financial scandals. ICPAK is supposed to punish errant members but so far there has been limited high profile punishment.