Agenda - Comment Page
Author:
Henry Saville
[Fulltext] It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows my background in Institute affairs that I want to focus much of this article on Education and Training. Our qualification has been highly prized for many years and we continue to attract record numbers of students - 920 in the current year. However, there are issues that need to be addressed; principally the concern that without radical overhaul our qualification will become unattractive to both our markets - employers and students.
The major driver of change in this as in so much else is technology. The capacity to process massive amounts of information quickly, and the fact that to do this effectively requires faultless processes and systems, means that the historic virtues of highly developed auditing and accounting skills are no longer as relevant - if relevant at all. Human intervention is frequently no longer necessary for the processing of information and consequently once the integrity of the underlying systems is established there is little doubt about the accuracy of the ensuing output. The historical attributes and skills may still come to the fore, but only if there is a serious breakdown of systems - either accidentally or by design - as in fraud.
Yes - we must retain that element of the traditional to enable those of our membership employed in delivering traditional services to be competent - but we must also rapidly broaden the thrust of our qualification to enable our membership to continue to flourish in the business marketplace. And indeed our members in practice must be able to bring these same business skills to bear on their client base in addition to the traditional audit, accounting and tax requirements, because these are the skills that the marketplace will increasingly want to buy.
Management, business strategy, and in particular technology, are critical elements that need to be much more strongly emphasised at or around the point of qualification.
The work of the Institute's Education and Training Review Group is ongoing - it is taking longer than we might have wished for or indeed anticipated - principally because the potential changes are so radical that they need to be firmly rooted on very soundly based research and proposals. A change is necessary and will come. The work of the Review Group will remain centre stage and we cannot allow progress to the new qualification to become too drawn out.
There are other major challenges facing us in the year ahead. Self-regulation in the opinion of many professionals is the hallmark of their profession. The regulation of one's professional activities by one's peers has long been perceived, from within, as being the defining criterion of a profession. Yet, in an increasingly cynical world, the lack of transparency that accompanied such arrangements became a millstone for us. It is hardly surprising against that background that new supervisory structures for the profession in both Ireland and Great Britain will come into play over the next year. I regard this Institute's 32 county status with great pride and it is important that new regulatory regimes should not imperil that status. The accountancy profession in Ireland and Great Britain has been closely linked for centuries. The new structures being put in place have broadly similar objectives. It is essential that their work is co-ordinated so that bodies such as the ICAI will not be penalised because it is representing and regulating members in two jurisdictions. In the context of the developing North-South and East-West relations between the Irish and British Governments and the Northern Ireland Assembly, co-operation in this area should be a political priority.
Many other serious issues will face the Institute's Council in the year ahead. We have had constant drains on our resources for a number of years, mainly as a result of Inquiries which have not yet concluded, and we have seen that our financial affairs are in a serious condition. Management of the Institute's finances not just for the coming year but establishing the best platform for the next 3 to 5 year period is going to be a significant feature of the work of your Council over the next year. Our relationships with other accountancy bodies, both nationally and internationally will also feature large, as will a new determination to engage more strongly with members in the 25-35 age group. When speaking at the Annual General Meeting which elected me President of this great Institute I expressed my feelings as a mixture of excitement and humility Excitement at the privilege of having the opportunity to be President of this Institute and all that that entails, but humility also in terms of wondering how I can come close to living up to the very high standards set by my predecessors in office. Presidents are torch-bearers, taking over from your predecessor and passing it on, to the best of your ability, to the next President. My fundamental wish is to expand the professional reputation and reach of our Institute. I hope that I will be able to achieve that with your support over the next 12 months.
Henry Saville, FCA
President