More than 5,000 accountants are being asked their views on a proposed merger of the Association of Charted Certified Accountants (ACCA) with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). The move, which has been initiated by the ACCA at its London headquarters, would create the world's biggest international professional accounting body under a new name, with 120,000 members and almost 200,000 students. It would affect the membership of 5,500 Irish accountants and an equal number of students.
The direct appeal to members was seen by one source in the industry yesterday as an attempt to circumvent possible opposition from the smaller CIMA and CIPFA bodies at board level.
Mr David Leonard, past president of ACCA International and chairman of the task force which looked at the merger proposal, said that the approach in the "Working Together for the Future" document was unique in that it was a bottom up one.
He said the "disciplinary machinery" of the ACCA would be an added incentive for the other two bodies to join. The document seeks the support of the members of the three bodies "before proceeding with the due diligence and detailed planning which this merger will require". "There have over the years been a variety of attempts at merging various bodies in the accounting profession. They have all failed, and they have all failed in our view particularly because they were top down approaches," he said.
He said the various members would be getting their packs in what was an "above board" approach.
"We are going to have a concerted effort to see what the members want . . . We are going to the members and by and large members of these bodies will ask what does it bring," he said. The model developed by the ACCA, which has 3,200 Irish members, involves an umbrella council overseeing a devolved structure, incorporating a business division, a public sector division and a practice division.
CIMA, with 47,000 members internationally and over 2,000 in Ireland, would fit within the business division, while CIPFA, which has about 200 Irish members and 13,000 members altogether, would be placed in the public sector division. Mr Leonard said there would be substantive savings to be made from the merger - an estimated £2.5 million - which could be used to provide better and more services for members. Mr Liam Coughlan, head of ACCA Ireland, added that membership within a new super-body would give international recognition to CIMA accountants in over 140 countries.
In a separate development, a High Court action taken by the ACCA against the Institute of Incorporated Public Accountants (IIPA), alleging plagiarism of part of its rule book, has been adjourned until September.
