The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh
Business ,Technology and Finance
Chapter-08
The accountancy profession
Presented By: Muhammad Mahbub Alam FCA
29th October ,2024
The accountancy profession
Professional: A person who 'professes' to have skill resulting from a coherent course
of study and training based on professional values, and who continues to develop and
enhance those skills by experience and continuing professional education.
Professional Accountant: For the purpose of this chapter the term 'professional
accountant' is limited in meaning to a member of the ICAB.
The accountancy profession started to take shape as an organised group of
professionals in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Initially it grew as a result of the
commercial and legal activities involved in personal bankruptcy, and the insolvency
and winding up of limited companies, but from quite early on the profession began to
incorporate many of the features that are familiar today. The Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Bangladesh was formed in 1973 by President’s order No. 2. The
earliest accountancy societies can be traced back to Scotland in 1853.
Accountancy profession: The profession concerned with the measurement,
disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers,
investors, tax authorities and other decision makers make resource allocation
decisions.
Accounting profession
The heart of the accounting profession are:
Financial reporting, and
Assurance
Financial reporting: The provision of financial information about an entity to external users
that is useful to them in making economic decisions and for assessing the stewardship of the
entity's management.
Assurance: The expression of an opinion or conclusion by a professional accountant in public
practice which is designed to enhance the confidence of intended users.
Public interest: The collective well-being of the community of people and institutions the
professional accountant serves, including clients, lenders, governments, employers,
employees, investors, the business and financial community and others who rely on the work
of professional accountants. (IFAC)
A professional accountant should show:
Professional responsibility (integrity)
Technical competence (expertise
Regulation of the accountancy profession
How is the accountancy profession regulated?
Following lengthy debate, the regulatory regime that now exists for the accountancy profession involves:
The government
The profession (self-regulation)
An oversight mechanism
The role of the government
The government is responsible for the legislative elements of the regulatory framework. Once
the regulatory framework was in place the government delegated certain of these statutory
powers to the SEC, RJSC and Bangladesh Bank, but the government remains responsible via
these powers and so has a continuing responsibility for the system's effectiveness.
The role of ICAB
In relation to its membership ICAB has direct responsibility for:
Entry and education requirements
Eligibility to engage in public practice
Eligibility for the performance of reserved activity under statutory powers delegated by the
government
Professional conduct requirements
Dealing with professional misconduct by its members
Roles of the professional accountant
A professional accountant who is technically competent and professionally
responsible can perform a wide variety of roles.
Traditionally professional accountants have tended to:
Work in public practice with an accountancy firm, or
Be employed by a private or public sector organisation to help in its
management
The professional accountant in public practice
Accounting
Auditing and assurance (reserved area)
Taxation
Management consulting
Investment business
Insolvency
Financial management
Corporate finance
Information and communications technology
Forensic accounting
Roles of the professional accountant
A professional accountant in business is one who is employed or engaged, in an executive or non-executive
capacity, in such areas as:
Commerce
Industry
Service
The public sector
Education
The not-for-profit sector
Regulatory or professional bodies
In business a professional accountant could be engaged in a wide variety of roles and responsibilities, some
of which need not involve use of their technical competence at all. Usually however a professional
accountant would be involved mainly in the finance function, in some capacity.
Quite often, especially in smaller businesses, a professional accountant may become involved in areas
which are outside their sphere of technical competence, including making decisions on matters concerning:
Law
Administration
Insurance
Pensions
Property
Personnel
Procurement, and
IT
"Role and Responsibilities of the Financial Reporting Council
(FRC)"
Role and Responsibilities of the Financial Reporting
Council(FRC)
The FRC is an independent statutory body established by under section 3(1) of Financial Reporting Act -
2015 in Bangladesh.
The FRC has the following responsibilities:
1) To provide broad oversight of the process for setting accounting standards in Bangladesh;
2) To provide broad oversight of the processes for setting auditing standards in Bangladesh;
3) To monitor the effectiveness of auditor independence requirements in Bangladesh; and
4) To provide the Minister responsible for the FRC with advice and reports about the matters falling within
the scope of its responsibilities.
5) Giving the professional accounting bodies reports and advice about the matters relating to the FRC’s
auditor independence functions in relation to these bodies.
6) Monitoring international developments in auditor independence, assessing the adequacy of the
Bangladeshn auditor independence requirements provided for in the Corporations Act and codes of
professional conduct and in light of those developments, giving the Minister and professional accounting
bodies reports and advice on any additional measures needed to enhance the independence of Bangladeshi
auditors.
7) Promoting, and monitoring the adequacy of, the teaching of professional and business ethics by, or on
behalf of, professional
accounting bodies to the extent to which the teaching of those subjects relates to auditor independence.
