The head of a global professional accounting body wants Barbados and the Caribbean to pay more attention to corporate governance issues.
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) chief executive, Helen Brand, said during a visit to Barbados last week that she was happy with the steps she heard were being taken by the island in this area.
However, she said the several scandals and financial controversies the world had witnessed in the last decade showed there was still much work to be done.
“I think there is still obviously a long way to go. One of the surveys that was issued recently by the International Federation of Accountants did show that the trust of the general public in institutions such as government, the media, NGOs and business is actually declining. So I think all of the evidence points to the fact that there is still a lot of work to do,” she told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY.
Brand, who is a member of the International Integrated Reporting Council, said she was “was very encouraged . . . that integrated reporting was highlighted as one of the trends within Barbados.
“So I think the profession here is very attuned to those future reporting methodologies and other things of importance to the profession. ACCA works very closely with the Institute for Chartered Accountants of Barbados and I think together we will make sure that those big ticket global issues are used within the Barbados context,” she added.
“We have an ongoing series of research articles on governance, we are also constantly training our own members and of course our students on the issues relating to governance and ethics, so it’s not a one-off thing. It’s absolutely integral to being a professional body and being a professional accountant.”
Brand said she was in Barbados last week as part of her mission to “engage with stakeholders, including our own members and students so that I understand the context in which ACCA is delivering globally”.
