عرض العناصر حسب علامة : ACCA
الأربعاء, 21 سبتمبر 2022 13:24
كورونا وعدم المساواة بين الجنسين
ما هي تأثيرات كوفيد -19 على المساواة بين الجنسين؟
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
The Social and Economic Impacts of COVID-19 Have Not Been Gender-blind – Neither Should Our Response
RACHEL BLEETMAN | MARCH 8, 2021
COVID-19 and gender inequality
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every corner of the world and all aspects of society, and the impacts of it will be felt for decades to come. One particular troubling consequence has been its devastating impact on gender inequality. The evidence is clear – the gender inequality gap is widening despite decades of progress that sought to close it.
As a result of the pandemic, women’s employment is 19% more at risk compared to men’s (UN Women 2020) and women are more likely than men to take on unpaid care and domestic work in households. In addition, it is estimated that global domestic violence cases are up around 20% (BBC 2020). For women in more marginalised communities – such as women with disabilities, LBTQ women and women from ethnic minorities, compounding factors have led to even greater discrimination and inequality.
Addressing the crisis
To tackle gender inequality, governments around the world can employ a critically important public policy tool known as gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) when designing COVID-19 economic recovery packages. GRB is defined by UN Women as a ‘process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes, in all areas and at all levels.’ It is importantly, not a process of allocating resources to men or women separately nor is it necessarily about allocating more resources than originally planned. Rather, it is a technical process of assessing existing budget policies to better evaluate their impacts on gender equality as well as being a high-level commitment to combat gender inequality. It is also not a new concept – it has been implemented in some form in over 80 countries (Stotsky 2020) since it was first developed in the 1980s.
To be most effective, gender-responsive budgeting techniques should be found throughout the policy and budget cycle. From the initial policy design, through to design and implementation and of course, in the auditing and evaluation stage. By adding a gendered perspective to each part of the cycle, policymakers and public finance professionals can ensure that they adequately account for the differing needs of men and women in a more holistic way. To promote the use of GRB in the COVID-19 response and to enable public sector finance professionals to employ the tool effectively, ACCA has developed a set of tools and resources to help the profession learn more about GRB and implement it wherever they are based.
An example of how to use gender-responsive budgeting
The UK’s Office of National Statistics releases data on unemployment disaggregated by both sex and sector each quarter. For August to October 2020, the unemployment figures were as follows:
74,000 people were classified as being unemployed in the construction sector. When filtered by sex, it shows that men accounted for 86% of that figure while 14% were women.
So, when designing a policy response aimed at tackling unemployment in the construction sector, it is critical that policymakers consider the gendered impact of what a construction job package might look like. It is clear from the sex-disaggregated data that the majority of end-users of this policy decision and budget allocation will be men. Therefore, subsequent or supplementary measures should be considered to ensure that female-dominated sectors are also prioritised in job retention or reskilling schemes to avoid women being overrepresented in the unemployment figures.
Additionally, exploring qualitative data can help better understand why women are so underrepresented in this sector – what barriers exist that have clearly prevented women from entering the construction sector? And for men, more data could probe thinking around, for example, the impacts of unemployment on mental health. Policymakers could also consider what policies could be used to equip those made unemployed with skills beyond construction. This initial process will encourage a more holistic approach to this particular package to fully understand its broader objectives outside of simply saving jobs. By assessing the impact of the policy on both men and women, policymakers can ensure that this policy response does not unintentionally exacerbate or perpetuate gender inequality.
Having explored the objectives, the next stage involves designing the policy and allocating the adequate resources to ensuring the policy will achieve its intended outcome. To do so, a number of useful techniques can be employed, for example –an equality impact assessment can be carried out to assess the expected impact on both women and men. The policy should also be subject to parliament scrutiny with a gendered lens. It is important to ensure that the way the policy is designed and measured will achieve the ultimate objective. For example, considering whether to use performance-based budgeting to measure outcomes or whether a zero-based budgeting approach would work better if this is a new policy objective.
At the implementation stage, considerations include whether line ministries have the training and capacity to implement the policy, and if sufficient resources have been allocated to achieve the objectives. Importantly, public finance professionals can use an expenditure tracking system to ensure actual spending meets planned spending – this will also improve the audit trail for the final evaluation stage. Finally, the finance professional can help ensure that the policy objective was met – this is where the vital role of auditors comes into play, to assess:
Was the intended objective met?
How mainstreamed was gender throughout the process?
And critically, what should be improved for the next cycle?
Supreme Audit Institutions have a critical role to play in ensuring that governments achieve both the objectives they lay out in budget statements, but also in ensuring governments meet their commitments to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)– in this case, SDG 5 on gender equality.
The central role of the finance profession
As the resources on ACCA’s website outlines, GRB can be implemented in any jurisdiction if certain conditions are in place. The public finance profession can play a key role, wherever they are in the world, to make GRB a reality and to shed a renewed light on COVID-19 and its impact on gender inequality. From ensuring data is disaggregated by sex, using that data to inform policymaking, designing budgets that can measure defined objectives and measuring progress made on achieving those objectives - the public finance profession is at the heart of GRB.
To learn more about what GRB is, where it can be found, how to implement it and what the profession can do to raise awareness of this policy tool, go to ACCA’s website to see our newly published resources and register here for our CPD webinar on GRB and the COVID-19 economic recovery.
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الخميس, 18 فبراير 2021 12:28
رئيس الاتحاد الدولي للمحاسبين، يشارك أفكاره حول التحديات والفرص التي تواجه المهنة
التركيز على المستقبل
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Bringing the future into focus
Feb 08, 2021
Alan Johnson, President of the International Federation of Accountants, shares his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing the profession, and the priorities for his presidential term.
1. When you joined the IFAC Board in 2015, did you envisage at that time becoming President?
Absolutely not. In fact, I didn’t know much about IFAC until 2011 when I was approached to consider joining the Professional Accountants in Business Committee, which I served on for five years. In 2015, ACCA, my member body, asked me whether I would consider putting myself forward for the board and quite honestly, I had never thought about that – partly because I wasn’t sure I would know what to do given that I didn’t have much knowledge of IFAC beyond my Professional Accountants in Business work. But then, having thought about it, I realised that I probably knew enough. I also realised the value of being a volunteer and giving back to the profession, a profession that had given me a good life and a good career internationally, so I decided to go for it. I knew it would be competitive, and I didn’t honestly expect to get it, but I was selected to my pleasant surprise.
Then, when the call came out for board members to put their names forward in January 2018 for the Deputy President position, I didn’t put myself forward because I genuinely believed that other members of the board deserved to become President and would do a better job than me. But things developed by mid-2018 and I was again asked to consider putting myself forward. It was quite late in the process, but I put my hat in the ring. As they say, the rest is history. I was appointed Deputy President and the more I learnt about the role, the more I felt confident in the role so that, by the time the election for the presidency came around, I felt I was ready.
So, that’s what happened. It wasn’t planned or envisaged. I never expected to get on the board of IFAC, let alone become Deputy President or President, but sometimes things work out.
2. And how has the work of IFAC changed over the five years of your involvement?
The profession faces many challenges, as do all professions today. Number one, we have the scrutiny of the regulators concerning the quality of audit. Sadly, corporate failures will always bring the spotlight onto the audit profession, whether we like it or not. Failures – and I would not necessarily call them audit failures because it is not as if the audit itself failed – arise for various reason, including for example when management deliberately keeps information away from auditors. Now, that is not a good enough excuse to the public because every corporate failure leads to significant loss of jobs, loss of livelihoods, loss of value to investors, and damage to the society in which businesses operate. So, I don’t want to minimise corporate failure; it’s quite serious, and we have an important role in helping prevent it as part of a broader ecosystem.
We also have to demonstrate that we operate ethically, that we act independently, and we do our best to provide independent, high-quality assurance on financial statements. We, therefore, spend a lot of time reinforcing the importance of ethical behaviour, independence and judgement. There’s a firm commitment to operate with sound and robust independence in what we do.
The other thing I would say is that we talk about the auditors when it comes to corporate failure, but we should also think about the professional accountants in the business who are responsible for performance, oversight, risk and governance. We must look at ourselves from within the corporate entities and ask: where are we as professional accountants, and is this a situation where we should blow the whistle? That’s where the profession plays a vital role and that’s why the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, which covers not just accountants in practice but also accountants in business and the public sector, are essential as we support our professionals and encourage them to speak out when that is needed and necessary.
You know, we talk a lot about the public interest, but if you asked me 30 years ago, when I was CFO of one of Unilever’s subsidiaries, if my job was a public interest role, I probably would have said no. We have a big role to play in explaining what public interest really means. I think the auditors get it, but I’m not sure whether professional accountants in organisations understand that they have a critical role in protecting the public interest. Yes, they are employees of an organisation. Yes, they are paid by the organisation. And yes, their careers are often dependent on those organisations. But since I got involved with IFAC, I have become aware that I’ve always had a “public interest” role. I always acted in the public interest, but I would not have defined that part of my role as it needs to be clearly defined, especially today in a world of multi-stakeholder capitalism.
So, we have a significant role to play through our member bodies to ensure that our professional accountants understand their unique roles in protecting the public interest. And part of that is making sure that private enterprises operate correctly, ethically, within the law, and do everything that is right for society – not just what is right for shareholders.
3. For many professional accounting organisations, volunteers tend to come from public practice. Given your extensive background in industry, what does the perspective of an accountant in business bring to IFAC’s standard-setting and industry-convening roles?
It’s an interesting question because that was precisely what I had in mind when I had concerns about whether I would be of any use on the IFAC board. Having said that, in all the roles I have had in business, I have always interacted with the profession. I was on the other side of discussions with auditors for many years. I was on selection panels to select auditors. I was the Chief Audit Executive at Unilever for six years and in that time, I engaged regularly with our external auditors. Even though I don’t come from that part of the profession, I understand what they do, what they need, how they operate, their challenges, and their critical role in society. And that’s why I have been able to contribute to the discussions in the Monitoring Group – because I understand the role standard-setting boards play as part of building trust and confidence in financial markets.
When I joined the IFAC board, many colleagues came from the audit and assurance side of the profession. Today, we have a much better balance of people from business and the public sector while retaining expertise from the audit and assurance profession and improving the level of representation for small- and medium-sized practices (SMPs) on the standard-setting boards and IFAC’s advisory groups. If there is one thing we should feel proud of, it is how much more diverse the board is today. I thrive in working with diversity. As a person, you learn a lot more; you become a better leader; you become a better person. By the way, diversity of thought, views, expressions and debate around the table will, more often than not, improve outcomes.
4. A feature of Chartered Accountants Ireland’s membership is the relatively high proportion of our members working overseas. What supports should professional accounting organisations offer to their overseas members to encourage loyalty to their qualification while maintaining standards?
I worked extensively in Europe, Africa and Latin America during my career, but I always had a strong affinity with Ireland through my early career in Unilever when I visited Dublin and other cities frequently. It’s a unique country that has always been a top talent provider around the world and Chartered Accountants Ireland is no exception. The Chartered Accountants Ireland qualification is highly sought-after, so it’s no surprise that there are so many Irish Chartered Accountants working worldwide, either because their companies have moved them or they sought opportunities abroad.
When I look at where we are today, the three things that stand out for me are ethics, leadership and governance. Professional accountancy organisations need to equip their members with these skills wherever they are in the world because reputation takes years to build but can be lost in a flash. We need to protect the profession’s reputation, which boils down to ethics, leadership and governance. It’s also about courage and confidence. So, when I look at what our member bodies need to do, they not only need to support their existing members, they also need to attract the brightest, best and most committed people into the profession because we are a profession of people. Robots and machines might help us be more efficient in some areas, but most of what we do is people-centred and requires good judgement. It’s essential, therefore, that we remain an attractive profession for the next generation.
If I look back at my memories of the profession, I think of long hours, hard work, no work/life balance, travelling a lot if you’re in audit and assurance, terrible for families, terrible for working mothers. Your career might pause if you’re a working mother and you take maternity leave or time away to look after young kids – that role that is still more typically assumed by women, although that is changing. As a result, the accountancy profession is not a natural first port of call for the next generation who want better work/life balance. So we must find new ways of doing what we do – not only more efficiently, but doing different things and often in different ways to make our profession attractive. I think accountancy remains very attractive and when I look at the statistics, we are a growing profession. Many young people in many countries are coming through the professional qualification so we can attract them, and that’s great – but we also have to retain them.
Purpose is a critical element in achieving that. Young Chartered Accountants want to work for an ethical company, as we all do. It’s is not just about rapid career advancement; they want to see the purpose and the impact their organisation – and by extension, they themselves – can have on society. Young people are thinking about purpose much more than I did 40 years ago. It means much more to them, and they will form their views about whom they want to work with, where they want to work, and what work they want to do based on the ethos and the purpose of organisations. And to go back to the point about the public interest, if we can make it clear why our profession is truly a public interest profession, we will remain a very attractive profession in the future.
5. Your predecessor, Professor In-Ki Joo, described the Monitoring Group’s challenges as “among the most difficult circumstances” in his memory. What opportunities do you see for IFAC as the Monitoring Group’s work takes effect?
As you know, the Monitoring Group is a group of international institutions and regulatory bodies that are working to advance the public interest in areas related to international audit standard-setting, audit quality and ethics. The initial Monitoring Group discussions started in May 2015, before I joined the IFAC board, and it remains a feature today. Today we’re in a much better place, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
There will be some changes to the structure of the standard-setting boards and the process to select standard-setting board members. But whatever the outcome is, I think there is a clear recognition that the profession has developed high-quality standards for auditors, professional accountants and the public sector. The question is how we move forward in a changing environment with more agility, more speed, and more diversity – that’s what we’re discussing now.
IFAC and its member bodies will continue to play an important role in the standard-setting process. Why do I say that? First of all, we have the knowledge and expertise. We are either the preparers, users or assurers, so we must have a role because we understand what good standards look like. That’s accepted by the Monitoring Group and the other players, including the PIOB (Public Interest Oversight Board) and the standard-setting board chairs.
We also have to play a critical role in adopting and implementing international standards. A standard-setting board can write excellent standards, go through the due process, get them developed and get them approved – but indeed international standard-setters have no force of law. Standards need to be adopted and implemented by national standard-setters. That is where our profession comes in and why the profession has to stay connected to the standard-setting process, provide good quality resources to the standard-setting board and the technical teams that do the work, and – an even bigger job – facilitate adoption and implementation in jurisdictions around the world.
IFAC will clearly have a very important role in standard-setting and an even more important role in making sure that the standards get used. A standard is worth very little if it’s never implemented; sometimes we forget that.
I am much more confident today that we have the right framework in place to have proper and fruitful discussions. There is also the right understanding of each player’s relevant and relative roles, and there is an acceptance that we all have important roles to play in delivering high-quality international standards that are adopted across the world. That’s the objective of all of us, and there is no argument or disagreement about that.
6. IFAC is actively promoting the development of coherent standards for ESG. Are there pitfalls as well as opportunities for accountants as these standards are developed?
First of all, we need a truly international approach to ESG standards. At the moment, we have fragmentation with five or six bodies working on different elements of ESG standards. It isn’t joined up, and there’s no mandate to deliver. Like audit and assurance standards or accounting standards, we need a framework and structure to develop international ESG standards.
Some time ago, we concluded that the IFRS Foundation had a role to play because it has credibility, capacity, resources, and a proven track record in delivering internationally accepted standards. IFAC put out a call to action in September, which outlined the importance of one body taking responsibility for setting standards. It cannot continue to remain in the hands of five or six independent bodies without the capacity, resources, funding, and authority to deliver. The paper called for a new sustainable standards-setting board under the umbrella of the IFRS to take responsibility for developing credible, international sustainability standards that can be adopted widely across the world. Why? Because there’s an increasing demand for all organisations to report against a consistent set of high-quality standards. The demand from society, investors, stakeholders, suppliers, customers and employees is that companies deliver against a set of high, internationally comparable standards.
It goes back to the point of purpose. Whether in our profession or other professions, the next generation will want to work for companies that take this seriously. It’s one thing to say that we will deliver against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the hard truth is: how do we know we’re getting there? Where’s the measurement, and against what measures? Are they consistent measures? How do we know that what a company is reporting is authentic, is accurate? That’s where our profession has an important role to play on both sides, both as preparers who help organisations implement the necessary processes and as accountants in practice who provide independent assurance over, and audit, what is reported to give credibility.
As a profession, the pitfall will be if we aren’t up to the mark in helping organisations implement the reporting regimes to meet the new standards. If we don’t do that, somebody else will. That might be a pitfall, but I see it more as an opportunity – not necessarily a commercial opportunity, more an opportunity for our profession to play our rightful role in ensuring that organisations become more sustainable and helping society, in general, become more sustainable.
This all links back very strongly to the concept of the public interest, which I have mentioned several times. Wherever you go, you will find a link to our role in the public interest – and this is a critical public interest role we must fulfil. That’s why I see it as an opportunity, but a pitfall if we fail. And if we fail, we have not fulfilled our public interest mandate and therefore don’t have a right to speak out on issues.
7. What other areas of focus would you like to bring to bear during your tenure as IFAC president?
Beyond the important points I’ve already discussed, I have canvassed intensely for increased professionalism in the public sector. I was on the board of the UK Department for International Development for just over two years and during that time, I chaired the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. That period really shaped my awareness of how higher levels of professionalism, particularly in terms of the accountancy profession, could make a massive difference to the public sector. It was an ‘aha’ moment for me, and I want to drive that agenda much harder during my presidency. And we are starting from a position of strength, as we now have great public sector representation on the IFAC board. When I joined I think there was one public sector member; we now have four out of 22 and many more on our advisory groups.
Another area of focus is what I call ‘Save the SMEs’. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are critical to every economy, large or small. Big corporates get lots of attention, but we often forget that big corporates not only rely on SMEs, but a significant part of their supply chain is also made up of SMEs. The largest employer worldwide is the SME sector, so we need to save the SMEs by ensuring that they have access to high-quality professional accountants. We can do that by advocating to ensure that they employ professional accountants, and ensuring that the SMPs that support them have a high profile on our agenda.
Who is Alan Johnson?
Alan Johnson became IFAC President in November 2020, having previously served as Deputy President from 2018-2020 and as a board member since November 2015. He was nominated to the IFAC board by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Alan is a former non-executive director of Jerónimo Martins SGPS, SA, a food retailer with operations in Portugal, Poland, and Colombia, having completed his board mandate in 2016. He is currently the independent chair of the company’s Internal Control Committee. Previously, Alan was Chief Financial Officer of Jerónimo Martins from 2012 to 2014. Between 2005 and 2011 he served as Chief Audit Executive for the Unilever Group. Alan also served as Chief Financial Officer of Unilever’s Global Foods businesses and worked for Unilever for 35 years in various finance positions in Africa, Europe and Latin America.
Alan was a member of the IFAC Professional Accountants in Business Committee between 2011 and 2015, a member of the ACCA’s Market Oversight Committee between 2006 and 2012 and chair of the Accountants for Business Global Forum until 2018. He was a member of the board of Gildat Strauss Israel between 2003 and 2004. Alan is the chair of the board of governors of St. Julian’s School in Portugal and chairs its Finance and Bursaries Committees. In October 2016, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the International Valuation Standards Council and chairs its audit committee. Between July 2018 and September 2020, he was a non-executive director of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and chaired its Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. In January 2021, he joined the board of Imperial Brands plc as a non-executive director.
Source: The International Federation of Accountants.
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الأربعاء, 10 فبراير 2021 14:36
المحاسبة الحكومية عند مفترق طرق: الفرص الناشئة خلال COVID-19
أصبحت المحاسبة الحكومية والتقارير المالية على مفترق طرق اليوم
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Government accounting at crossroads: Emerging opportunities during COVID-19
ED OLOWO-OKERE|FEBRUARY 05, 2021
Government accounting and financial reporting are at a crossroads today. Providing information on how much cash is received into treasuries and paid out for goods, services and transfers is not enough. Stakeholders are demanding more accountability and engagement in public finances. Governments are spending large sums of money to tackle the health emergency and to implement massive fiscal stimulus programs in response to the pandemic. Undoubtedly, timely and quality information is necessary to better assess the financial health of governments and to communicate the financial consequences of the pandemic to all stakeholders. This can contribute to building the much-needed trust in governments and improve the effectiveness of their pandemic response.
The World Bank’s recent paper on the role of Government Financial Reporting in times of the COVID-19 Pandemic provides guidance to accountants and auditors on identifying opportunities to improve financial reporting within the existing systems. The paper also highlights the impact of the pandemic on government financial performance, position and cash flows.
Similarly, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) Board and International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) released a COVID-19 Intervention Assessment Tool, which helps assess, evaluate and inform various types of interventions by governments. Another recent study by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) on Sustainable Public Finances through COVID-19 highlighted the critical need to record and manage the assets and liabilities being created through the below-the-line policy measures, such as guarantees and equity injections.
Some of the emerging lessons on government financial reporting during the COVID-19 crisis include the following:
Financial statements information has been traditionally underutilized by governments. Going forward, balance sheet information can inform how to achieve an inclusive and sustainable recovery in the post COVID-19 world.
Government accountants should more proactively demonstrate the value of financial statement information and why it should be analyzed in conjunction with statistical information.
While ‘accrual basis accounting’ is necessary to prepare financial statements that provide a comprehensive overview of the impact of COVID-19, jurisdictions following ‘cash basis accounting’ can enrich their financial statements with supplementary information for better decision making.
Comprehensive financial statements based on accrual-based accounting will contribute to debt transparency and improved decision making. For example, in the current situation where global public debt is projected to approach a record high in 2021, countries need to closely monitor their sources of funding and associated costs. Comprehensive financial statement information on debt is especially useful for making policy decisions.
Annual and interim financial statements should be prepared on a timely basis in order for them to be useful to policy makers and help inform pandemic-related response financial decisions.
Countries need to accelerate implementation of accrual-based accounting and financial reporting reforms, preferably aligned with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) , to have more comprehensive and reliable financial information for decision making.
Ministries of Finance need to ensure that the necessary systems and procedures, including Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) implementation, are in place to facilitate the recording of transactions and preparation of financial statements. These include consolidated ones with different levels of aggregation and even the whole-of-government financial statements where feasible
Financial statements that include information on the long-term fiscal sustainability, with a focus on the impact of the pandemic, are necessary.
Strong coordination by the Ministry of Finance and Accounting Agencies with the auditors of government financial statements, i.e. Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), is critical. This is not only with respect to the preparation of audited financial statements but also in developing and implementing accounting and financial reforms such as migration to accrual-based accounting.
Accounting and auditing agencies should regularly conduct business continuity assessments so that governments are ready to face future emergencies without detrimental effects on their operating capacity , and that essential and non-essential staff can work remotely when needed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world and how governments operate forever. By strengthening public financial management systems and protocols today, governments will be better prepared for an increasingly uncertain tomorrow.
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الأربعاء, 27 يناير 2021 15:18
هل تتلاشي فرص التعافي السريع وسط عودة ظهور COVID-19؟
يرى المحاسبون أن فرص التعافي السريع تتلاشى
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Accountants see chances of swift recovery slipping away
By Michael Cohn
Accountants around the world are seeing the prospects for swift economic recovery slipping away amid a resurgence in COVID-19.
The latest edition of the quarterly Global Economic Conditions Survey from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants found that confidence fell in North America in the fourth quarter of 2020, after surging in the third quarter. On the other hand, there was a big improvement in confidence in the Middle East, perhaps due to a rebound in oil prices. More than 50 percent of the accountants who responded to the survey in the Asia Pacific region, North America and South Asia expect sustainable recovery in the second half of this year.
Expectations for an economic recovery rose late in 2020 as pharmaceutial companies began producing coronavirus vaccines, but the slow pace of the rollout due to manufacturing and distribution delays is likely to dampen optimism further. Accountants report that the companies and firms where they work anticipate pent-up demand for products and services once vaccines are widely available and people are able to travel more freely, although the mutating strains of the virus are adding uncertainty to those prospects.
Health care workers test people at a COVID-19 testing site in the parking garage for the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida.Eve Edelheit/Bloomberg
“Last year was the worst for the global economy for several decades,” said Warner Johnston, head of ACCA USA, in a statement Tuesday. “2021 will see recovery, but precisely when and how strong it will be is very uncertain. We anticipate a weak start, followed by a recovery gathering momentum through the second half. Much depends on the evolution of the COVID virus and variants relative to the progress of vaccination programs, and there is great uncertainty surrounding these developments.”
Confidence among accountants fell in the ACCA and IMA’s Q4 survey, after jumping by the greatest percentage on record in Q3. Orders and capital spending showed little change in Q4 and remained well below their pre-crisis levels of a year ago. Employment recovered significantly in Q4 on the index, thanks to a relatively good jobs market rebound since the early weeks of the pandemic. Overall, the survey indicates expectations among accountants for continued economic recovery in early 2021.
Concerns and fears about customers and suppliers going out of business edged lower worldwide in Q4 but remain elevated, highlighting the extreme uncertainty in the global economic outlook at the beginning of 2021. More than half of the respondents in Asia Pacific, North America and South Asia expect sustainable recovery in the second half of this year.
However, in many parts of the world, the likelihood of a swift recovery is dim for this year, especially where the vaccine rollout has barely begun at all.
“The pandemic has forced millions into extreme poverty as emerging markets suffered recession for the first time in decades last year,” said IMA vice president of research and policy Raef Lawson in a statement. “Policy responses to the pandemic have left the public finances of most economies in a perilous state with budget deficits in the range of 10 percent to 15 percent of GDP in many countries with debt to GDP ratios well over 100 percent.”
In Africa, for example, the renewed rises in infections toward the end of 2020, along with a continuing absence of foreign tourists, point to a weak start to 2021. The declining amount of GDP per capita across the region, according to the World Bank, will push tens of millions of people into extreme poverty.
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الثلاثاء, 19 يناير 2021 13:08
كيفية ظهور محاسبو جمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين (ACCA) كقادة أعمال مؤثرين؟
في كثير من الأحيان يمكنك أن تُحبس في بيئتك الخاصة. جمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين (ACCA) تفتح عينيك على العالم
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
From Russia with Losevskaya
Language no barrier as Oxana brings her global view to Council
"Too often you can get locked up in your own environment. ACCA opens your eyes to the world"
Oxana Losevskya, Council member
There can be few economies in the world which have experienced as much change as Russia’s over the last generation.
When the command economy of the Soviet era collapsed the country was plunged into a market system. Millions were forced to find their feet quickly, and to make a living in a new way.
Entire professions were affected too – among them accountancy. Finance professionals had to grapple with an entirely new landscape, and were faced with the daunting task of guiding businesses into the strange world of capitalism.
It is a process which still goes on – but Russian accountants are increasingly emerging as leaders, creators and important partners for businesses in Russia.
‘It has changed,’ said Oxana Losevskaya, who comes to her work in Moscow with a global perspective. She was born and educated in Russia, but has also worked and studied in other countries, including Australia. She graduated in accountancy at the University of Sydney before returning to Russia where she followed her ACCA Qualification while working for EY, taking classes on Saturdays and Sundays
‘When I first began working in Russia, accountants were not considered to be the most important people in a business,’ she said.
Distinct path
‘Accountants were not so well established at the top of organisations. They lived in the shadow of the powerful CEOs, and their work was not seen to be as important as sales, or marketing. Finance was left behind. We were just the numbers people.’
Not any more.
‘We are far more likely to be seen as an important business partner now, with wide skills that go beyond making the sums add up,’ she said.
That is true of Oxana’s own work, as the partner of SL Partners in Moscow, a business strategy consultancy which advises companies on management and planning, financial modelling and valuation, performance analytics, digital transformation, due diligence, fundraising and mergers and acquisitions.
Oxana also says that ACCA is playing an important role in building the profession in the Russian-speaking world, by offering a distinct path into business for the leaders and entrepreneurs of the future. Crucially, it offers a Russian language option for students, which makes it stand out for ambitious young professionals in the region.
‘The prospects for growth for ACCA are enormous,’ said Oxana.
"I want to play my part in bringing ACCA to many more people all around the world. I want to be useful"
‘You have to remember that the Russian language is used in all of the countries of the old Soviet Union, 15 countries. There are already about 3m accountants in Russia alone, and I am certain that the profession will grow even more in popularity.’
Oxana is proud that ACCA is reaching out to people who want to build a career with fellow professionals who are equally committed to working ethically and in the interests of society. She has been advocating for ACCA since the day she qualified.
‘It has become so important in my career and in my life,’ she said.
‘Too often you can get locked up in your own environment. ACCA opens your eyes to the world.
‘I love the atmosphere when I go to an ACCA event. It is so friendly it is like a family. That is the feeling I am certain I will have on Council, and I want to play my part in bringing ACCA to many more people all around the world. I want to be useful’.
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موسومة تحت
الأربعاء, 21 سبتمبر 2022 11:48
الموائد المستديرة للقطاع العام لجمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين (ACCA)
الموائد المستديرة للقطاع العام لجمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين (ACCA): استمرار محادثتين هامتين مع الخبراء
معلومات إضافية
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
ACCA’s Public Sector Roundtables: Continuing Two Important Conversations with the Experts
As part of the 10th-annual Virtual Public Sector Conference (VPSC), ACCA’s Public Sector Team convened two roundtables with our partners at IFAC to continue conversations from our VPSC with a number of expert participants.
The roundtables look place on December 7th and December 8th 2020.They focused on Sustainable Public Finances During Times of Crisis (chaired by Anthony Harbinson, ex-ACCA President) and The Role of the Public Finance Profession in Achieving the SDGs (chaired by Jimmy Greer, ACCA’s Head of Sustainability). These sessions were co-organised with our colleagues at IFAC and the turnout and level of discussion were fantastic. Overall, we hosted 22 senior experts spanning different sectors, regions and areas of expertise. As a result of these timely conversations, we drafted two policy briefs based on the recommendations of both groups.
The recommendations call on governments to meet a number of important objectives including utilising the role of the public finance profession to push for progress in achieving the SDGs and ensuring the COVID-19 economic recovery is both sustainable and inclusive of all.
Take a look at the policy briefs under the downloads section and help continue the conversations around these important issues.
For questions or comments about the policy briefs or the roundtables, please contact Alex Metcalfe (Head of Public Sector) or Rachel Bleetman (Policy and Research Manager, Public Sector).
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موسومة تحت
الأربعاء, 22 فبراير 2023 10:39
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants شهادة جمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين
تعتبر شهادة جمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين جواز سفر لعالم جديد من الفرص بمجرد أن تصبح عضوًا في الجمعية، تستمر عملية التعلم طوال حياتك المهنية
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شهادات مهنية
الإثنين, 07 ديسمبر 2020 14:08
مواجهة المحاسبين لتيار الأتمتة المتزايدة
يمكن للمحاسبين مواجهة تيار الأتمتة المتزايدة
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تكنولوجيا المعلومات
موسومة تحت
الخميس, 26 نوفمبر 2020 11:28
جمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين (ACCA) تختار رئيسًا جديدًا
تم تعيين مارك ميلار، من سوفولك، إنجلترا، كقائد لمنظمة المحاسبة الدولية في الاجتماع العام السنوي لجمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين (ACCA)، والذي عُقد بالكامل عبر الإنترنت للمرة الأولى على الإطلاق بسبب الوباء. وسيقود 227000 عضو و544000 عضو مستقبلي في 176 دولة.
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موضوعات متنوعة
الأربعاء, 21 سبتمبر 2022 10:41
ما هي أحلامك في المستقبل؟
استطلاع يوم به VERVE شريك موثوق به لجمعية المحاسبين القانونيين المعتمدين (ACCA) والاتحاد الدولي للمحاسبين (IFAC)
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