Accountancy watchdog delayed
A row over whether the new accountancy watchdog should be allowed to undertake tasks such as 'ethnic monitoring' is helping delay its launch until early next year.
A lack of clarity over the Accountancy Foundation’s duties has caused consternation among the six accountancy bodies funding the regulator who see the body’s responsibilities as going too far.
The Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies believes the Foundation’s remit should be confined to carrying out what the institutes currently do, such as providing guidance, disciplinary action and regulation.
But the Foundation considers its role extending to other areas of public interest, like ethnic monitoring, which the CCAB says should be dealt with by government departments only.
Peter Wyman, deputy president of the ICAEW, told Accountancy Age: ‘We don’t have anything to hide. We deal with the appropriate authorities and don’t think the Foundation should spend our money in those areas – it was not what they were set up to do.’
The Foundation had originally been expect to launch in January 2000.
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Make-up of Foundation unveiled