On June 26, while addressing delegates at the Annual Caribbean Conference of Accountants (ICAC), President Irfaan Ali made remarks which constituted an attack on the right of accountants to speak freely on any topic of their choosing and to freedom of association. Typical of his presentations, this one was also riddled with contradictions and hypocrisy.
The President said in part: “Now, accountancy remains one of the most marketable professions in the world. The circumstances may change, but a need for some financial information, professional judgement, and trusted advice never disappear. Now, note financial information, professional judgement.
“Judgement requires a specific level of skillset and trusted advice. Sometimes I see some accountants giving analysis on public policy that make me question where the judgement is coming from and whether the judgement is professional and whether the advice can be trusted. You see, accountants in this profession and this body have to decide when you become a politician and make it clear that I’m no longer an accountant, I’m now a politician, because you put the entire profession at risk.
“And this is a real problem in the region. You have to decide on which side of the equation you’re standing. Because you put everything at risk. So if your view is a view from the lens of satisfying a political narrative or satisfying an objective, then that should be declared. Because of the level of trust this profession carries, I think that should be declared. And if it’s not declared, then you’re in breach of the ethics of the profession.
“Now, I am known to be very frank on matters. I take criticism, but I also like to be very frank on matters. If we are to, in this region, ensure that a profession remains a profession that is trusted, professional, and one in which analytical judgement can be held with confidence, then it’s important that we have guardrails to support the professionalism of the organisation”.
While it is perfectly acceptable to question the judgement of accountants who analyse public policy, they are entitled to those judgements and the President is not the arbiter of suitability. It is for the profession and clients to determine whether any judgement publicly expressed by an accountant contravenes professional codes or transgresses the boundaries of any accounting assignment.
The President then suggested that those accountants who analyse public policy were essentially mounting a political platform. That is nonsense. While accountants have acquired a reputation for being reticent and working quietly on their numbers, they are as entitled as any other member of society to comment on all manner of things, including public policy, without being deemed as entering a political camp. Indeed, it would seem that the President is creating a prohibition on accountants become politicians and running for office. That would be absurd. Accountants should definitely be invited to run for public office given the skillsets they bring to the table. Their running for office can in no way be seen as scandalizing the profession or breaching its ethics.
The President then quite rapidly collapsed his own shaky platform by inviting accountants to do exactly what he had railed about: become activists in various causes.
The President said that professional bodies such as ICAC should move beyond traditional accounting discussions and position themselves as facilitators of business, financing and public policy solutions for the region. So should accountants shunt aside their profession in favour of facilitating business and financing even though that puts them beyond just their accounting duties?
The President then adverted to Guyana’s proposed diaspora bond. “Looking here in Guyana, we are now looking at a diaspora bond. We are looking at creating (an) investment vehicle through which you will have greater participation of the ordinary person from Guyana in huge business initiative,” he said, adding that he hoped similar mechanisms could eventually be expanded regionally. Was the President implying that the accountants should become bonds salespeople?
It didn’t end there. Citing substantial liquidity in the Caribbean in pension funds and elsewhere and the need to identify productive avenues for investment, the President challenged participants to generate practical solutions to regional problems and to present these to regional heads of government. So the accountants are now to be transformed into investment bankers?
The real problem here is the penchant of the President, his government and the PPP to see every independent commentator – be it accountant or otherwise – as an adversary to be denigrated and ridiculed. A task which is oftentimes taken up by the numerous media arms and sycophants controlled by the government. They openly, however, welcome those who flood into their camps – accountants or otherwise – even if they are publicly known as opportunists. So no qualms here at all about the deprofessionalising of accountants.
Is the President aware of accountants who are members of his party? Presumably they are on the right side of the political aisle. Is the President aware of any accountant with deep links to the PPP who might have been given choice positions on political grounds in an industry which is failing? Would that run afoul of the principles he seemed to want to outline? Is the President aware of accountants who cozy up to him and his government in the hope of winning big auditing contracts in the oil and gas industry? Isn’t that exceptionable? What about those accountants who attend his lavish galas? Are they betraying the tenets of their profession?
As a free speech medium, Kiskadee Watch rejects the President’s admonition to accountants. It is an unvarnished attempt to cow those in the profession who are brave enough to speak on matters of public interest when so many others have muted themselves in the interest of remaining in good graces with the powers that be for the benefits that might accrue.
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