'Cowboys' seek full regulation
Accountants belonging to bodies outside the six main institutes are asking to be regulated by the profession?s new watchdog to avoid being labelled as 'cowboys'.
The chief executive of the Corporation of Public Accountants, Kevin Henry, said he was keen for his 700 members to come under the remit of the Foundation, the new independent regulator. In addition to the six main bodies, which fall under the Foundation’s remit and form the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies, there are potentially as many that it does not plan to regulate.
Henry was responding to calls from the so-called Montrose Group of accountants in Scotland that the government should create a legal restriction on the use of the term ‘accountant’ for CCAB members only. He said: ‘We are of the same view that it is crazy the accountancy profession is one of the only professions that isn’t regulated. People offering public services need to be competent.’
The Montrose group believes non-CCAB practitioners are not qualified to describe themselves as accountants. Henry believes his members are, but only for the market in which they work. ‘We’re not attempting to compete with the Big Five,’ he said.
Links
Move to round up cowboy accountants