Restructuring of CA Profession Part VI

For referring to earlier parts of the article, click here:

Restructuring of CA Profession Part I

Restructuring of CA Profession Part II

Restructuring of CA Profession Part III

Restructuring of CA Profession Part IV

Restructuring of CA Profession Part V

9. Please give your expectations from ICAI *

1. First of all; whose suggestions are accepted for the betterment of the profession; should be appreciated by the Institute. An e-mail or letter of appreciation may be sent to him so that each member would be motivated to contribute in the activities of the Institute.

2. Audits allotted through tenders should be avoided in its present form. In government tenders; no details are available regarding scope of the work, turnover, assets, standard time of completion of the work by number of staff etc. The Institute prohibits undercutting in the fee quoted by members inter se. In the tenders; this is explicitly being allowed which is controversial to the basic theme of ethics of the Institute. The tender must quote likely amount of fee to be charged for the work described. Better for this purpose also; firms of chartered accountancy should be empaneled. This will assure the quality of the work. Otherwise; it has happened that for a particular tender; a member quoted Rs.42 Lacs, another quoted Rs.12 Lacs and ultimately the work was allotted who quoted Rs.8 Lacs. When approached to the authorities; it was surprising to note that their projection for the work was Rs. 1 crore!

3. Members who devote their time for professional development through their suggestions, contributions in the form of articles etc.; must be given special credit for CPE Hours and these should be part of STRUCTURED CPE HOURS LEARNING. Writing an article should be allotted minimum 6 hours of CPE learning.

10. Please give your suggestions on new initiatives that ICAI can take for the betterment of the profession *

1. Repeating again; whose suggestions are accepted/considered with modification(s) for the betterment of the profession; should be appreciated by the Institute by sending him letter of appreciation so that each member would be motivated to contribute in the activities of the Institute. This way he can say himself as a true Brand Ambassador of the Institute.

2. After completion of GMCS; every student must give his presentation. This way the shortfall in the number of faculties which the Institute is right now facing will be fulfilled instantly. Further those who are otherwise not be able to qualify CA exams; still will find place in the industry due to improved communication skills.

3. A student should score at least 60 marks in two subjects in Final Examinations so that immediately after qualification he will be confident about selection of the areas to make his career bright.

4. Candidature for Elections should be on the basis of number of years experience in a particular stream say accounting, auditing, taxation etc. and the candidate must be able to effectively communicate his professional knowledge. His past achievements should throw light on his professional wisdom. The deciding points may be his paper presentations, writing articles in the ICAI and other professional journals etc.

5. To serve the profession independently without any pressure from the management; it is direly needed that all ROUTINE AUDITS ( i.e. even Tax Audits) should be routed through empanelment.

It is not difficult to implement: A separate portal can be had where all assessees will file their details with the help of their “family” CA. By doing so; even unorganized sector will be organized because his “family” CA would be in the advisory capacity and auditor appointed through empanelment will really be in a position to conduct the audit independently.

6. Presently empanelment is restricted to banks and financial institutions. At present private sector (public limited companies) also uses huge funds of public. Hence practically there is no difference between banks and big companies. It is desired that statutory auditors and consultancy firms be segregated. Institute’s own focus is on specialization looking to the various certification courses included recently. As described above; each audit must be under empanelment system to retain auditor’s independence. When one is also serving in the advisory capacity; then it is very hard to understand how he would remain independent while conducting audit. So “extra-ordinary clauses” to permit such consultancy to the same client whose books are audited by him; should be abolished immediately.

7. A new generation of public speakers on the professional issues should be brought immediately which would be able to serve majority of members and students routed through branches. GMCS courses are already been conducted by the Institute. By tightening the norms and taking tests for the same; this would be possible without any further infrastructure. Further; this will solve the problem of unemployment for fresh chartered accountants to a great extent and new horizon will emerge as wonderful professional opportunity. Such faculties may be appointed as permanent lecturers on paid basis. With this; many CAs would be able to deliver their lectures in renowned business schools and universities. This will further increase the brand value of the Institute.

8. At least three seats of Central Council from each region and six seats of Regional Council must be reserved for First Three Rank Holders. Similarly seats for lady candidates be also reserved looking to the recent proposals in Company Law Bill.

9. Many lady CAs are not working after qualification. Such members should be termed as Sleeping CA (SCA) to discourage such attitude. (humour)

10. Every member should define his principal area of practice (limited to 1 or 2) to the Institute and accordingly he should conduct that activity.

Members already engaged in the practice area other than auditing; should not be allowed to conduct audit. Because due to this; independence of auditor is hampered and quality of audit is deteriorated.

In a partnership firm; every member’s principal area of practice should be defined. This restrictions are in line with the provisions of Limited Liability Partnership. One more advantage of this criteria is: CAPACITY BUILDING will automatically emerge. Presently capacity building model could not find place because small firms are engaged in all types of work which is not in line with the emerging scenario.