Vicki Stylianoou, the public accountant executive at the Institute, said there is no official definition of an accountant.
One of Australia’s peak accounting institutions revealed that there are at least 200,000 self-proclaimed accountants in the country.
At a recent parliamentary investigation hearing, representatives from the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) were asked about the number of “accountants” who are operating outside the supervision of experts.
“It was about 200,000 mark,” IPA executive Vicki Stylianoou told the Congressional Joint Committee on Business and Financial Services.
This figure was tallied by the IPA using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics several years ago.
The IPA compared the number of members of three legal accounting institutions: IPA, Certified Public Accountants (CPA), Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) to identify their occupations as accountants.
Stylianou noted that the IPA could not identify how many of these self-proclaimed accountants were former members of the three organizations.
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Additionally, the executive officer said there was a problem with how to define someone as an accountant.
“The other question is, how do you define an accountant? Because that’s not defined,” she said.
“So an accountant could be someone who makes the data entry that identifies as an accountant for ABS purposes.
“(Some) can call themselves an accountant. They can prepare financial statements in some software.”
Data from three accounting organizations shows that the CPA has around 175,000 members, 30% from overseas, Caanz has over 134,000 members in Australia and New Zealand, and the IPA has 25,000 members.
ASIC has questioned the regulatory gap
Worker Deborah O’Neill, chairman of the committee, asked representatives of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) about how to solve the problem of self-identifying accountants.
“There could be hundreds of thousands of people who claim to be accountants. There’s nothing to stop them from declaring themselves as auditors for the purposes of SMSF (self-managed superfunds),” she said.
In response, Asic Chairman Joseph Longo said it is impossible for someone to identify themselves as an auditor unless someone is registered.
However, he admitted that ASIC is not very good.
“That (accountants) is a much broader concept of import,” he said.
“We don’t recognize any laws that regulate the use of that word, or state or federal laws, and in fact, analogy the same applies to engineers.
“I think the accounting discussion we have is really difficult because there are a lot of accountants. They offer a variety of services, and there is the self-regulation concept that is being discussed when regulating them more effectively.
“But I think the extent of its effectiveness would probably not be very satisfied without legislation.”
