Institute news
Nominations to the 2021—2022 Association Regional Advisory Panels and Management Accounting committees
The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants' Nominations Committee comprising CIMA and AICPA members convened in December 2020 and will next meet in February 2021 to nominate members for the board of directors (ie, Association, Management Accounting, and Public Accounting boards) and its chairman and vice-chairman and select committees with terms from June 2021 to May 2022.
These committees include the Management Accounting (MA) committees (Lifelong Learning Committee, CGMA Exam Board, and Thought Leadership and Business Ethics Committee) as well as the eight Regional Advisory Panels.
In July 2019, the Association's Management Accounting board of directors voted to have all seats for the committees determined by the Nominations Management Accounting subcommittee. CIMA Council approved this resolution in October 2019 with the objective of building a strong pipeline of volunteer talent, providing opportunities for rotation of a broad and diverse membership, and ensuring candidates are fit for purpose.
All individuals interested in serving on the Regional Advisory Panels, Lifelong Learning Committee, CGMA Exam Board, and/or the Thought Leadership and Business Ethics Committee should complete and submit an online form to ensure a common set of information on each candidate is received.
More information about the composition and objectives for the committees and Regional Advisory Panels, along with nomination forms, can be found for CIMA members and AICPA members at aicpa-cima.com and tinyurl.com/y55cfk78, and must be received at VolunteerServices@aicpa-cima.com by 17.00 hours GMT on 1 January 2021. If interested members do not receive a prompt email confirmation of their form, they should contact VolunteerServices@aicpa-cima.com before the closing date to actively seek confirmation.
For questions and inquiries regarding submitting a nomination, contact the Association's Governance team at VolunteerServices@aicpa-cima.com or one of the following Association staff liaisons:
Regional Advisory Panels
- Africa — Tariro Mutizwa, Tariro.Mutizwa@aicpa-cima.com
- The Americas — Nate Fredrickson, Nate.Fredrickson@aicpa-cima.com
- Australasia — Venkkat Ramanan, FCMA, CGMA, Venkkat.Ramanan@aicpa-cima.com
- Europe — Jakub Bejnarowicz,Jakub.Bejnarowicz@aicpa-cima.com
- MESANA — Venkkat Ramanan, FCMA, CGMA, Venkkat.Ramanan@aicpa-cima.com
- North Asia — Vicky Li, FCMA, CGMA, Vicky.Li@aicpa-cima.com
- South East Asia — Venkkat Ramanan, FCMA, CGMA, Venkkat.Ramanan@aicpa-cima.com
- United Kingdom — Emma Bailey, Emma.Bailey@aicpa-cima.com
Committees
- Lifelong Learning — Stephen Flatman, Stephen.Flatman@aicpa-cima.com
- CGMA Exam Board — Tracey Fabiyi, Tracey.Fabiyi@aicpa-cima.com
- Thought Leadership and Business Ethics — Ash Noah, CPA, FCMA, CGMA, Ash.Noah@aicpa-cima.com
Candidates will be notified of their status in April 2021.
Harding delivers speech at Polish event on economic recovery
Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA, chief executive—Management Accounting at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, spoke at the ABSL (Association of Business Service Leaders) FDI forum "Crisis Boosting Investments" in September in Warsaw. Guests from global businesses and national authorities, and international experts joined the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Deputy Prime Minister Jadwiga Emilewicz.
Harding delivered a keynote speech on how finance leaders can drive economic recovery and took part in the panel discussion "Rethinking Corporate Strategies in the Face of New Reality".
Kazakhstan students to join CIMA cooperation programme
CIMA and KAZGUU University in Kazakhstan have formally agreed to work together to train and grow the number of internationally recognised finance professionals in the central Asian country.
The cooperation programme is open to almost 600 students at KAZGUU University pursuing undergraduate degrees in accounting and audit, finance, economics, and management. Based on their university courses, students will be exempted from taking three out of four of CIMA's Certificate in Business Accounting (CertBA) exams. In addition, after passing one CertBA exam in English, students will be able to obtain an international certificate and proceed to the CIMA Professional Qualification.
Vadim Bozhenik, head of CIMA Eurasia, said KAZGUU graduates would now be able to join "the international community of CIMA students and have the opportunity to start their pathway to earning the coveted Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation".
Lyazzat Khairullina, vice-dean for graduate studies at KAZGUU University, said: "The cooperation with CIMA is not just the recognition of our academic programmes by the global professional community. It makes our students highly competitive both locally and globally."
This year, 32 students who formed eight teams from KAZGUU University took part in the CGMA Emerging Leaders Competition 2020 Europe, an eight-month initiative that was launched by the CGMA Global University and Academic Center of Excellence and the CIMA Europe Team in partnership with 22 universities in mainland Europe and Eurasia.
CIMA member receives OBE for services to equality and procurement
Shirley Cooper, FCMA, CGMA, has been awarded OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's Birthday Honours list 2020 for services to equality, women's empowerment, and the procurement profession. Cooper is a co-founder and board adviser to legal firm Tapestry Compliance and is a nonexecutive director at the UK government's Ministry of Justice. Her roles championing women include UK chair of the International Women's Forum and trustee and treasurer of UN Women UK. She is also a member of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants' UK CFO Advisory Forum.
Sri Lanka holds virtual career festival
In September, CIMA Sri Lanka held a "Hundred & Ten Percent" weeklong virtual career festival. The event included speakers across various industries on topics relating to the five skills areas of the CGMA Competency Framework: technical, leadership, people, business, and digital. A 24-hour Hackathon tested participants' problem-solving skills, and an Elevator Pitch segment provided the opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their product or business idea to well-known business leaders.
Zahara Ansary, ACMA, CGMA, Sri Lanka country manager at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, said: "This festival fully utilised the power of the digital landscape, whilst providing a platform where industry leaders, both local and global, and individuals across the island came together for an enriching learning experience."
CIMA's role in improving charity reporting
All UK charities must keep accounting records, prepare annual accounts, and make them available to the public upon request. Reporting requirements differ according to the type, gross income, and assets of the charity. All charitable companies, and any noncompany charities with a gross income of more than £250,000, must prepare their accounts in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP). The SORP-making body includes UK and Ireland charity regulators.
SORP is applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard (FRS 102) applicable in the UK and Ireland. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) oversees SORPs for several sectors and, in order for them to be approved, any changes must comply with the FRC's policy.
Under the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, the SORP must be used when accounts are prepared under the Charities Act and when preparing the trustees' annual report. Charities must work in the public interest and inspire trust that ensures ongoing support.
The trustees' role is to ensure that the charity is meeting its public benefit requirements, and the trustee annual report prepared under SORP must give a "true and fair view" of how they have been achieving that.
SORP engagement partner
The SORP is updated occasionally to take into account changes to charity law and accounting standards. In 2019, as part of its work to improve the charity accounting framework, the Charity Commission for England and Wales announced that the SORP-making body was seeking engagement partners. CIMA applied and was awarded places on both the Trustee and Independent Examiners strands. CIMA's representative on both these engagement strands is Susan Coffey, FCMA, CGMA, who has significant charity sector experience.
Coffey said the new engagement strands will benefit CIMA members and the public. "It enables a wide range of stakeholders to share ideas on charity financial reporting at a really early stage in the SORP-making process," she said.
"The fact that there are engagement strands that cover all key SORP stakeholders means that we won't be looking at the SORP in isolation, [but] we are able to exchange ideas and identify issues and agree as a wider group how we can effectively address those issues.
"The trustees' report and accounts tell the charity's story. It's important to remember that charities rely on volunteers, and in many cases it will be volunteers writing those reports. So they need to be easy to follow but still contain the necessary information," Coffey said.
For more about the SORP Engagement Partners, visit charitysorp.org.
Elections to CIMA Council 2021: New global vacancies
Since October 2018, CIMA Council has been reviewing the consistency of its size and constitution in order for the governing body to be best placed to consider new possibilities and opportunities for the global membership and profession. It will also allow Council to confidently explore new ideas when considering matters of strategic importance. Most recently, Council agreed to a re-distribution of constituency seats to reflect more proportionately CIMA's global community and profile.
Therefore, elections will be held in February 2021 for the following electoral constituencies (EC). Nominations for candidates (Fellows) to fill the vacancies must be made by six or more members (three of whom must be Fellows) whose registered addresses are in the EC concerned.
EC
EC10 East, West Central, and Southern Africa Two vacancies
EC14 South Asia Three vacancies
EC16 South East Asia One vacancy
EC17 Europe, North Africa, and Middle East One vacancy
A nomination form for candidates for election and other information are available to download at cimaglobal.com. They may also be obtained from the governance team at CIMA by emailing corporate.affairs@aicpa-cima.com. Please read the rules carefully before completing the form.
The nominations must be received on the prescribed form by 23.00 hours GMT on Sunday 3 January 2021 and should be clearly marked for the attention of the governance manager. A scanned copy of a signed and completed form is acceptable.
The governance team will acknowledge receipt of the nomination form promptly, either through an automated process or by individual acknowledgement. It is however the candidate's responsibility to ensure that his or her form has been received. In order to avoid uncertainty, it is recommended that, if candidates do not receive a confirmation, they contact the governance team directly at corporate.affairs@aicpa-cima.com before the closing date.
If there is more than one candidate for a vacancy, a ballot will be conducted. The governance team will contact you if an election is required.