Chartered accountants express concern on inadequate training institutions

The lack of sufficient training institutions for chartered accountants and the ‘incompetence’ of auditors from the Supreme State Control seem to be major concerns to the profession. Chartered accountants expressed this concern, April 22, at a press conference organised in Douala by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Cameroon commonly known by its French acronym, ONECCA, on the upcoming first-ever ‘Etats Generaux’ of the institute.

The members of a Pilot Committee of the Etats Generaux of ONECCA said a majority of chartered accountants practising in Cameroon studied in Western countries like Britain, France, United States, Canada, as well as in some African countries. They regretted that there is no big advancement in the country in the training of persons who can qualify as chartered accountants after their pupilage with fewer than 200 registered chartered accountants in the country.

The Pilot Committee noted that there are only two public institutions in Cameroon training future chartered accountants; one in Yaounde and the other in Douala. To make matters worse, they said even the certificates offered by these institutions do not measure up international certificates. \

They, however, said ONECCA has been working hard for the standard of the training be to be ameliorated, and for the certificates to be internationally recognised, at least as a certificate of the Central Africa sub-region. Charles Kooh II, a senior member of ONECCA, lashed out that auditors of the Supreme State Control are incompetent to assess work done by chattered accountants.

“To get an inspector from the Supreme State Control to re-examine an account that has been duly audited and validated by a chattered accountant, is like asking a nurse to examine an operation carried out by a competent surgeon,” said Kooh II, President of the ONECCA Pilot Committee. He insisted that when a chartered accountant examines and validates the account of a company, he or she gives the record credibility.

When The Post raised questions on the issue of credibility of chartered accountants considering that some chartered accountants including Kooh II himself was arrested and detained under the anti-corruption campaign dubbed ‘Operation Epervier’, Kooh boasted that none of the chattered accountants have been found guilty and imprisoned.

He said the problem is that the state auditors in Cameroon have a lower level of education and training as compared to chartered accountants. According to Kooh, in countries like the United States and Britain, those recruited to work as state auditors are persons trained as chartered accountants. He said state auditors in those countries are thus competent to re-examine accounts that have been audited and validated by chartered accountants.

Meanwhile, the ONECCA Pilot Committee disclosed that a Code of Ethics and Deontology have been established for chartered accountants for the purpose of quality control. It should be recalled that the Pioneer President of ONECCA was the reputed Anglophone chartered accountant, Mola Njoh Litumbe, who held the post from 1987-1995.