Expel corrupt colleagues - ACCA Prez

Accra, Sept. 12, GNA - Professor Bosiako Omane-Antwi, President, ACCA Ghana, on Thursday called for the expulsion of morally bankrupt Accountants to serve as deterrent to others who might be contemplating corrupt practices.

He said there was the urgent need to restore trust in the accountancy profession by instituting strong regulatory reforms so that the age-long code of integrity, probity and independence could be upheld.

"To me, the bad nuts in the profession are those professional accountants morally weak and bankrupt in character with innate personal corruptible characteristics should be punished severely when they are caught and expelled immediately from the profession to act as deterrent."

Prof. Omane-Antwi was delivering a public lecture organised by the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) on the theme: "The contribution of the Business Professional in the Golden Age of Business - the Role of the Professional Accountant."

Citing various accounting scandals that had hit corporate bodies in recent times, he said most of the failures occurred because the accountants at the centre were practising cosmetic or simply false accounting.

Prof Omane-Antwi suggested the separation of auditing from accounting and consultancy, audit rotation and enforcing audit committees as some of the remedial actions to forestall the rampant accounting scandals.

"Again, very well planned internal control systems with competent and effective internal audit team as part of the control system will also help," he added.

Reverend Father John Martey, Director of the IPS, said business professionals needed to understand their environment and be able to predict what would happen in the future.

"For effective governance of organisations in this golden age of business, the business professionals have to avoid being caught off guard and challenge the conventional mental maps about the future." Rev. Fr Martey stressed that the professional in the golden age of business should undertake planning of systems that could help chart the future and create positive attitudes towards change.