NIM kicks against ICAN Act amendment bill
Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) has kicked against the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) Act amendment bill recently presented to the House of Representatives.
NIM President, Retired Maj.-Gen. Abdullahi Muraina, gave the institute’s standpoint in a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday.
He explained that the bill, premised on ICAN’s desire to regulate other professional bodies, encroached on the statutory mandates of NIM by defining ‘accountancy practice’ to include ‘management consultancy services.’
A copy of the bill obtained by our correspondents revealed that Section 19 of the Principal Act amended by renumbering it as Section 23 and substituting the existing interpretations with the following new interpretations:
“Accountancy practice” includes auditing, reporting accounting, investigations and forensic accounting, financial accounting and corporate reporting services, financial management services and management consultancy services.
Others are corporate services, governance risk and compliance services, tax practice, accounting information systems practice and insolvency practice, including receivership and liquidation as well as financial advisory services.
According to the bill, a chartered accountant is an accountant enrolled as a fellow or associate member of ICAN, who practises as an auditor, reporting accountant, accounting information systems practitioner, tax practitioner, insolvency practitioner, corporate and public finance practitioner and management consultant.
The NIM president said that the Nigerian Institute of Management Establishment Act No. 14 of 2003, enacted as an Act of National Assembly on June 19, 2003, established the institute as a corporate body under that name.
He stressed that by the Act, the institute was charged, among many other responsibilities, to determine what standards of knowledge and skill were to be attained by persons seeking to become members of the management profession.
The retired military officer further argued that the NIM establishment act empowered the institute to regulate and control the profession of management in all its aspects and ramification.
He stated that the Act, therefore, nullified the inclusion of “management consultancy services” by ICAN in its amendment bill since it was an aspect of the management profession, thus underscoring its encroachment.
“Other aspects in the ICAN bill that tampers with the NIM Act include: ‘Corporate Service Practitioner’, ‘Governance Risk and Compliance Practitioner’ and ‘Financial Management Practitioner,’” Muraina said.
The NIM president said it had become necessary for the institute to make its position known to the National Assembly in writing on some aspects of the bill in order to nip the issue in the bud.
