ACCA Geared To Lead The Way Forward!

How tuned are Professional Bodies to addressing the needs of the future? Is it fair to state that a failure at meeting changing expectations and role-play in the future might lead to an extinction of such bodies due to lack of relevance and usability? Although the statements above put forth a rather harsher outlook onto the future, it is not necessarily an incorrect one with Generation X, adapters of technology, sharing an organizational hierarchy at parallel levels with Generation Y, raised with technology.

Setting out a platform for other professional bodies to follow, ACCA organized an Accountancy Futures Symposium with panel discussions around Critical Issues for Tomorrow over a two-day event commencing from today. Moderated by Afra Sajjad, Head of Education and Policy Development, ACCA Pakistan and  Rabia Garib, Editor-In-Chief, CIO Pakistan, the symposium proceeded with an opening note by Arif Masud Mirza, Head of ACCA Pakistan following into a panel discussion centered around ‘The Value of Audit In the Modern World’ for session 1, leading into Session 2 with an opening note by Tahir Jawaid, Vice President, Human Resource and Public Affairs, Engro Corporation Ltd. and another panel discussion centered around ‘Generation Y: Realizing the Potential’.

Auditors Only Audit?
Although that used to be the case before, the expectations off a statutory requirement (the auditor) in some organizations are changing at a pace surprising to many. It is the auditors who are doing exactly what they are being paid to do by decision-makers, and yet the macro-environment is changing, indicating an added pressure from the external stakeholders that expands the job description of an auditor and therefore, the decision-maker’s commitment to the same.

A panel chaired by Salim Chinoy, Partner and Country Services Leader-Assurance, Ernst & Young, Nadeem Yousuf Adil, Partner at M. Yousuf Adil Saleem & Co. Chartered Accountants, Feroz Rizvi, Chief Financial Officer, ICI Pakistan Limited, and Arif Masud Mirza identified roadblocks impeding the transition of the auditor’s role. Few of these include a familiarity with financial data and not non-financial data, if interfering with the business model in place is part of the auditor’s job responsibilities, and most important of all, if the management is willing to compensate the auditor for the changing responsibilities.

Stepping back, profiling an auditor today is not limited to job experience he/she carries but also, the generation the auditor hails from. Another panel chaired by Haroon A. Jan, Head of Business Development, ACCA Pakistan, Haroon Waheed, Director HR, Unilever Pakistan Limited, Shabbar Zaidi, Partner, A.F.Fergusson & Co., and Asir Manzur, Group Head HR Management, KESC, and moderated by Rahila Narejo, Chief Executive, Narejo Human Resources discussed issues facing Generation Y. And , it could be fairly said that the issues were aligned to the ‘fast and furious’ nature of Generation Y, that have to be addressed with regards to training and development, as all of it carries a cost to the employer at the end of the day.
Followed by a round of QnA, Day 1 of the ACCA Futures Symposium came to an end today looking, to make a fresher beginning tomorrow.

You can watch interviews and video clips from the event here, or visit the ACCA Symposium website here.