THE Institute of Solomon Islands Accountants [ISIA] took another first step on Tuesday in releasing its first annual report covering the 2013-14 financial year.
The President, Roger Townsend, released the report which outlined some of the key successes of the previous year and described some of the challenges facing him and his Council in 2015.
“ISIA’s professionalization is increasing each year step by step,” Mr Townsend said.
Mr Townsend said, that some of the key achievements in 2013-14 centred around developing programs to support ISIA members in obtaining international accreditation through studies with CPA Australia. A licensing agreement with CPA Australia should see the cost of undertaking professional stream studies greatly reduced for its members.
“In addition, we are arranging training, coaching and mentoring for those candidates to help them pass their subjects,” Mr Townsend said.
During his term in office, Mr Townsend said, that he would be working with his council members on tackling some of ISIA’s next challenges; particularly:
Application of the Accountants Act 2010
The Institute needs to continue to increase technical competence and widen its network with the accounting fraternity in Solomon Islands so that ISIA can start to take up more of its responsibilities under the Accountants Act 2010.
“As part of that, we need to start ensuring that all working accountants within the formal private sector become members of our Institute as required under the Act.” Mr Townsend said.
Public sector accountants
The Institute needs to explore means for encouraging public sector accountants to become part of the Institute so that they have a voice when ISIA commences the process of setting accounting and ethics standards for the profession.
Regional Affiliation
The Institute is now an associate member of the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants [CAPA] due to where it currently sits in CAPA’s assessment of ISIA’s maturity as a Professional Accountancy Organisation (PAO).
“We have much to do in terms of improving our sustainability, relevance, member value and professionalism before we can begin to consider ourselves fully developed – and associate membership should provide us with opportunities for capacity development that would otherwise not be available to us.” Mr Townsend said.
Professional Secretariat
The Institute has a number of statutory responsibilities under the Accountants Act 2010 which it has yet to operationalise – important ones being the issue of accounting standards and an ethics code; as well as establishing a Disciplinary Board.
“We will need to continue to explore ways to fund the attachment of a professional Director to the Secretariat to help establish a working group to commence research into accounting standards to apply to Solomon Islands among other development activities,” Mr Townsend said.
