By Hiran H.Senewiratne
The speed at which young Chartered Accountants leave for other countries has increased during the last 18 months due to the prevailing economic crisis in Sri Lanka, president, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) Sanjaya Bandara said.
“At present, out of 9000 members more than 40 percent has already left the country. But during the last 18 months, the number of young qualified Chartered Accountants going overseas has increased in a considerable manner, Bandara told a media briefing called to announced the acceptance of entries for CA Sri Lanka’s prestigious event, TAGS Awards 2023, which will be held on December 12 at Shangri La Hotel, Colombo. The media conference was held at CA Sri Lanka’s head office in Colombo.
Bandara added: “The current economic crisis prompts renewed calls for stronger transparency, accountability and governance integrity across the board and the Anti-Corruption Bill, if implemented properly, will pave the way for a better and stronger corruption-free system.
“Since the Chartered Accountants’ qualification is well- recognized in the world, once our young accountants obtain the qualification they leave the country for better career prospects. Therefore, we have to fight corruption and increase transparency and accountability. Besides, a holistic approach needs to be adopted involving all stakeholders, along with the exercising of the political will to ensure successful implementation of policy decisions in these areas.”
Chairman TAGS Awards Committee Thivanka Jayasinghe said that last year CA Sri Lanka transformed and rebranded the Annual Report Awards ceremony as TAGS Awards, in keeping with global standards.
Jayasinghe explained that this was also done to keep pace with global developments amid an increased focus on enhancing non-financial reporting to disclose sustainability and climate change factors. “These introductions were further endorsed by recent global developments that have taken place in this area, including the International Sustainability Standard Board issuing new sustainability disclosure standards, thereby ushering in a new era in international cooperation, he said.
CSE- Director Arjuna Herath said that in financial reporting, much emphasis has been placed on non-financial factors, which will not negatively impact financial reporting.
“By having financial and nonfinancial information, prospective investors could use that data for future investments, provided this information has been reported according to proper auditing standards, Herath said.
Awards will be conferred on companies meeting the winning criteria, representing 29 industry sectors, including multinationals, blue-chips, SMEs as well as NGOs and NPOs. Organizations that produce annual reports could register for the highly acclaimed competition by providing their Annual Reports for the Financial Year ending December 31, 2022 or March 31, 2023.