Dissident ACCA members have forced reform back on to the association’s agenda by securing enough support to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting.
Accounting professor Prem Sikka and Ken Robins won backing from more than 100 members for each of eight motions that they have proposed. Their demands include scrapping the delegated proxy voting system, direct elections of the vice-president, disclosure of travel expenses for ACCA officers and insisting that the certifieds’ chief executive is an ACCA member.
Other possible changes include an annual publicity campaign, moving agms to Saturdays to boost attendance and numbering all ballot papers. Sikka, who will co-sponsor the motions with Robins, said: ‘We were led to believe there would be a comprehensive review of the association’s various governance aspects after last year’s egm. But this has not happened. Now we are prodding the leadership and saying the members want these reforms.’
Sikka urged all sides to conduct the debate in a ‘dignified’ manner, adding: ‘Hopefully, the discussion will be about the issues rather than the personalities.’
He called on ACCA’s leadership to allow him to air his views in the association’s magazine after he was ‘denied’ access last year. Sikka said: ‘Other accountancy bodies whose members have been calling for change have permitted reformers to explain their proposals through the official magazines.’
ACCA’s chief executive Anthea Rose refused to comment on the motions proposed by Sikka and Robins.