Outgoing AICPA chairman Robert Elliott said Cognitor was a concept ‘grounded in the marketplace’ and geared to clients’ competitive needs, and warned that if the AICPA did not develop it, somebody else would.
Elliott said the AICPA would focus its efforts on informing the membership of the global designation before it came under discussion again at the next council meeting in the Spring, the Electronic Accountant website reported today.
The decision to drop the name followed heated debate and argument from delegates. One representative from Georgia said: ‘I think we have to change, but Cognitor is not the answer’, while a Californian delegation said there remained a ‘general lack of clarity regarding the project’ and called on the Institute to communicate the concept more effectively.
Support for the Cognitor on this side of the Atlantic collapsed in October after the withdrawal of the English ICA and the Scots and Irish institutes from international discussions on its development.
Scots institute president Grenville Johnston said: ‘The North Americans feel they have a problem with their CA qualification. They’d be better investing their time and money in developing a global CA qualification.’
It its understood the project will forge ahead with the remaining five professional bodies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.
Links
Atlantic split opens over Cognitor plan
AICPA presses ahead with Cognitor
English ICA pulls out of Cognitor plan
Ward dismisses Cognitor proposal