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| For a conscientious member, to be on the Council is a taxing job. The meetings are much more frequent than most corporate boards - they are long, often for three days. The Agenda is heavy, running into 2 or 3 big ring - bound volumes. Still, there have been areas of dissatisfaction with the working of the Council, and several suggestions for Restructuring. |
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Pre - Qualification |
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In terms of minimum acceptable levels of experience and achievements, even to contest the elections. |
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Mix |
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Should include more members from service. Reserve seats, say 10 % to start with. |
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Expertise |
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Bring in some members with special expertise, such as - |
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Exposure to global trends in the profession. |
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IT and its applications in audit, advisory, etc. |
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Corporate Governance. |
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Eligibility |
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Consider a minimum of 500 hours of CPE and 15 years professional standing. |
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Code |
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Develop a code of conduct for members of the Central Council. |
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Tenure |
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The President and Vice President's tenure may be increased to two years. |
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Efficiency |
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Shorten the Council Meetings. Conduct them more efficiently. Email the minutes of meeting, soon after, perhaps even the next day' and certainly within a week. |
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Open Houses |
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Each Central Council member may hold an Open House, two-way communication meeting, once a month, with members in his area. Take the issues to the Council' and give feedback to members. |
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Recall |
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Consider a progressive, democratic amendment to the Constitution, providing for recall to Central Council members with whom their constituency members are dissatisfied. |
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Size |
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Examine it. There will be pressure to increase it. Contain it, as much as possible. One suggestion was to have one representative per 1,000 members. |
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Committees |
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The various committees - standing, as well as special committees should be made more efficient. They should work in a project mode, with end dates, milestones and time frames for their deliberations and outputs. |
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Devolution |
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Devolve more matters to the Regions. Let them innovate. Different regions may show better initiative and creativity in different matters. Let them learn from each other. Help transfer the better practices. Use IT as a major tool for real time information sharing, exchange of views and quick decision. |
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Officials |
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Empower the Secretariats at the Centre, Regions and Branches. Benchmark with successful, industry bodies like the CII, FICCI and NASSCOM, where the President and the elected bodies rely greatly on the Chief Executive (Secretary) and his team to act vigorously with their full trust, confidence and support. |
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Visionary Leadership |
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The Council and the elected office bearers should focus on the multi-level Visions. The Council should minimise the Agenda items, papers and time spent on operational matters. |
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Strategic Thrust |
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The Council should also demonstrate a long term strategic commitment, and continuity, in view of the periodic elections and the consequent changes of personalities. |
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Image |
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Focus on the raising the image of the profession in India and abroad. Be assertive with the Government of India. |
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Discipline |
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Many feel the need to uphold discipline. If necessary, punish even the larger firm, and senior CAs, without fear or favour. Give exemplary punishment to a few proven corrupt CAs so that the image of the rest can be protected and improved. |
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CA Scope |
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Increase the scope of work for CAs. Open up new areas. For example, propose that all audit jobs for Government should be done by CAs. |
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| Professional, democratic organisations like the Institute face many dharma sankats, dilemmas. One of these is the desire for committees, on the one hand, for in-depth analysis and consensus; and, on the other hand, the inadequate - attendance, participation and contribution of some of the members of the committees. The answer, of course, is not to abolish the mechanism, and centralise with the office bearers and the permanent secretariat' but rather to improve them. Several suggestions emerged. |
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Activity |
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Use level of energy, activity and time availability as criteria in choosing Chairman and members of the various committees. |
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Reconstitution |
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After two or three meetings, based on attendance and experience, the Chairman should be free to reconstitute the Committee, by dropping some members and adding others, on merits. |
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Norms |
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Follow norms for attendance and discipline like the established voluntary organizations. |
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Staff Work |
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The Secretariat to support the Committees with better preparatory homework, at the beginning, between each meeting, and at the end. |
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Back Up |
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Committee members to draw upon the internal research capability and reach of their own organisations, and their network, both domestic and international. |
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Workshops |
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Accelerate generation of ideas and convergence towards a consensus through one or more national and regional workshops. |
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Virtual Debate |
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Circulate green papers, for study, comments and suggestions, within specified time limits. |
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Consultancy |
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Where necessary, give a budget to the Committee to engage short term consultancy service for specific investigation and drafting. Use experts both from among CAs and outside the fraternity. |
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Decentralisation |
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Form Disciplinary and other committees at the Regional level itself. Let only exception issues go to the committees of the Central Council. Where an all Indian view and harmonisation is needed, invite the Regional Committees to send in their recommendations, within a time frame. |
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Code |
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Have a code of conduct for members of Committees, in addition to the code of council members. |
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Co-option |
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Co-opt a few expert, senior members on the Council and committees, without having to go through elections. Also bring in non- CAs and representatives of the corporate sector, Government and agencies. |
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Transparency |
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Publish the plans, proceedings, recommendations, decisions and achievements of committees, through interim and final reports. |
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Clarity |
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Technical and other committees to give quick, decisive guidance, removing ambiguities. |
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Reciprocity |
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Set up a Committee to work for reciprocal recognition abroad of the Indian C A qualification. |
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| As the number of students and qualified members grow, even beyond the already large counts, the regional affairs of the Institute will also need restructuring. The almost unanimous perceptions are that - |
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The Institute's governance and management are still rather over centralised. |
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The regions have not, on the whole, taken the initiative and set examples for other regions to pick up. |
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| Some members have gone to the extreme of suggesting even the abolition of the Regional Councils. |
| It is useful to remember that an Indian region has more individual CAs and member firms than many countries. So it needs to rise to the occasion. The following kinds of actions will help it come up to the challenges of the Vision |
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Market Development |
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Identify and develop new areas of work for members at state level, such as Sales Tax Audit. |
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Link Pin |
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The Chairman of a Regional Council to be an ex-officio member of the Central Council. |
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Decentralisation |
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Further decentralisation of activities to the Branches. |
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Ethics |
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Enforce standards among members. Take up the milder disciplinary cases. Only the more serious ones to go to the Central Disciplinary Committee. |
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Equity |
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Help the individual CAs and small proprietorships to survive, by impressing on the medium and larger firms to go for more value added services, rather than compete and depress the rates for the less remunerative jobs, like bank audits. |
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Student Body |
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Foster the formation of a regional association of the CA students for self- management of their studies and career preparations. |
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Size |
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Expand the membership of the Regional Council. |
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Eligibility |
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Consider eligibility standard like 7 years of membership and 150 CPE hours. Keep reviewing and raising them, as the overall professional standards go up. Perhaps minimum 2 years in the Regional Council for Office bearers. |
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Code |
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Adopt and practise a code of conduct for RC members. |
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Transparency |
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Disclose the expenses of members on RC work in the Annual Accounts and Report. |
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Professional Development |
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Reduce the pre-occupation with elections and the formal and informal campaigning and influencing that goes with it. Spend more time, energy and resources on professional development activities, such as papers, seminars and conferences. |
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| As the Indian economy starts growing at a trend average of 7% p.a. the semi urban and semi-rural markets will expand. The branch network of the Institute will need expansion and strengthening. |
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Close to the Customer |
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To come closer to the new CA business customers, the restriction of 50 km distance between two branches may need to be removed, especially in more densely populated areas. |
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Staffing |
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To be effective in serving the members, branches may also need qualified, paid employees. |
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Norms |
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Some basic common standards may be specified for the branches. Those who have the resources may exceed them. |
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Overseas Branches |
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As India globalises, more Indian companies and CAs operate broad, it may be necessary to open more overseas branches. |
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Activities |
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Talks, Seminars, Workshops, Get-togethers, CPE. |
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Library, Bookshop. |
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Coaching, Counseling, Placement. |
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Visits by Regional and National Council Members and Officers. |
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Network |
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Connect the branches with the RO by telecom and intranet. |
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Empowered |
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Take up issues with local governments and agencies for promotion of CA professional interests and opportunities. |
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| Translated into Action Points to be entrusted to Committees of the Council Professional Development |
| Key Actions |
Details |
Responsibilities |
Target Date |
| Introduction of Validation of CP and membership certificates on periodical basis |
To develop criteria for benchmarks / suitable grades for evaluation and score card approach
Fix specific grades for validation |
Professional
Development
Committee |
December 2002 |
| Mandatory CPE |
To commence continuous mandatory professional education to members for about thirty hours over a period of three years. Subsequently, making the members spend thirty hours per year, out of which at least 18 hours must be devoted to acceptable structured course |
Continuos
Professional
Education
Committee |
December 2004 |
| Develop grading/rating of firms |
To establish a Strategic Review Group whose objectives are to assist firms in evaluating their ability to accommodate changes in the accounting profession and add value to the peer review process by incorporating an additional assessment of the firms strategic planning capabilities and readiness· |
Rating group to be constituted (Vision and Restructuring) |
First Phase December 2002. Second Phase ongoing basis |
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Benchmarking the firms into different categories based on the gaps identified·
The evaluation process needs to be carried on a periodical basis say yearly to upgrade/downgrade the firms rating etc.·
The group shall comprise of specialists, experts, agencies, regulators etc., both at National and International level |
Professional Development Committee |
December 2002 |
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Facilities for |
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Sharing with other professions |
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Unlimited growth in the number of partners |
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Corporatisation of practice entities |
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To establish the multidisciplinary approach by networking with sister institutions and associations in India and Abroad· |
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To enable setting up professional firms with unlimited partners· |
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To enable establishment of limited liability firms to accept higher risks big size projects |
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Professional Development Committee and Executive Committee |
April 2003 |
| Research and Develop the models for sharing experience, infrastructure, revenue between - |
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Professional Entities |
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Other professional Entities |
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To obtain the necessary approvals. |
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To enable creation of good working environment and motivation for better contribution |
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Professional Development Committee |
April 2003 |
| Members - by various profit sharing/ networking concepts |
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| Research and Develop the growth models for - |
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Regions |
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Markets |
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Industries |
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Functions |
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Specialists |
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To establish a mechanism for members to access market for growth identified by regions, national and international levels |
Professional Development Committee |
April 2003 |
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