Clash of the accountants

By FS

(August 16, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A major dispute has arisen between the Sri Lanka branch of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Sri Lanka branch and the newly formed Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) over the use of acronyms for their respective qualifications.

The issue arose after ICMA was formed recently through an Act of Parliament and where it is stated that the use of the terms ACMA and FCMA are now the exclusive right of ICMA, whereas it has been used for many decades by CIMA (Associate and Fellow) members. ICMA says if it is to be used by any other institute, the country of origin of the examination – and in this case UK – should be included in parenthesis. CIMA is a UK-based qualification and if ICMA’s position is strong and valid, then CIMA accountants would have to use the acronym ACMA (UK) or FCMA (UK) in future.

CIMA says its an unfair trade practice and creates confusion as these acronyms have been registered by them under intellectual property laws. The ICMA argument is that national bodies must be given preference which CIMA and its members contend is unfair and have sought redress through the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA).

Both sides have valid arguments. For example it would appear unfair for ICMA to use the same acronym which has been used by CIMA for many years. On the flipside, preference must be given to local bodies in such cases similar to the formation of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) many years back when the British qualification was the most sought after. ICASL’s acronyms for its members are ACA and FCA.

Among other institutes teaching the same profession is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), also a British-led Institute. Although slightly different in nature in that ICASL teaches tax and audits while CIMA concentrates on management accounting, both have been trying to attract school-leavers over the years to acquire their qualification. In many cases in the past, top coporate executives have become ‘double accountants’ acquiring both the ACA/ACMA and FCA/FCMA qualifications to further their career prospects.

However in the past decade, CIMA has aggressively marketed its programmes and attracted hundreds of students while the ICASL, with the recent introduction of a savvy CEO, has stepped up the campaign and spreading its reach across the country. Competition between the two institutes is hotting up. Two weeks back ICASL officials went to Jaffna and set up a branch network and study courses. Not to be outdone, CIMA officials are hopping onto the next plane to Jaffna to market their programmes.
CIMA members, in a sense, need not worry as the use of the acronym - ACMA (UK) or FCMA (UK) – would still be a valued qualification and sought by employers with the ICMA qualification taking some time to get into the mindset of employers. But CIMA could lose its reach in the future in that ICMA courses are cheaper – an issue that has been the source of letters that this newspaper received some time back in that CIMA courses are too costly.

Furthermore in most professions, like our story on this dispute (elsewhere in the section) says, acronyms of professional qualifications acquired in another country or conducted by another country must carry that country of origin or the university concerned. In Sri Lanka, medical graduates passing out of Peradeniya or Colombo universities often in the case of the standard qualification use MBBS (Peradeniya) or MBBS (Colombo). The same applies to a qualification from a UK or other foreign university.

But the bigger issue in this ‘copycat’ furore is growing concern over the business of education in Sri Lanka which is fast becoming an unregulated sector rather than a social need. Hundreds of institutes or glorified ‘tuition’ classes have sprung up and students are passing out like clothes churned out at garment factories.

Scores of dubious medical degrees are enticing students to study in any part of the world. Some even offer degrees over the Internet – for a fee. The same applies to other ‘so-called’ professional qualifications in the medical, accounting, marketing and engineering professions.

Newspapers are swamped with advertisements inviting school–leavers, and in the CIMA case even while at school, to follow these ‘attractive’ courses. Education supplements in newspapers are the order of the day with some universities in unheard-of places offering full scholarships, etc. The other problem is the proliferation of international schools, some with woefully inadequate facilities.

Due to the lack of facilities in government schools or too intensive syllabus’, students are compelled to seek tuition elsewhere and while at these ‘glorified’ tuitories are enticed to follow other courses too.

For years, the call for proper regulation of private institutes has fallen on deaf ears and leading to a massive, unregulated private educational structure that is, in many cases, even bigger, than the government system.

In such a situation, issues like the CIMA/ICMA problem are bound to crop up in the future too, which once again illustrates the need for the proper regulation of private education.

-Sri Lanka Guardian