Wednesday, June 3, 2015

CA Sri Lanka getting a taste of its own Medicine


As a UK Qualified Chartered Accountant, who had to completely depend on my monthly income as a Student Trainee Accountant to live, I have been a critic of the CA Sri Lanka, and its practices vis a vis its students for a very long time. CA Sri Lanka uses false advertising practices to entice students to enroll with them, without coming clean on what the students can expect and the chances they may have of survival through to qualification and admittance into the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka.


I might add that I never applied for reciprocity to get admittance into the Sri Lanka Institute as I would then be a party to this crime, and would not be strong enough to affect any change from within. I have had very constructive debates with my father who is one of the oldest living Chartered Accountants in Sri Lanka, and who has NOT had any recognition of his contribution to employing, preparing and encouraging future Leaders of Sri Lanka, many who now occupy the highest positions of Government, Commerce and Industry in Sri Lanka, over this very issue! 

It is therefore with interest that I just read another article by a recent student who is articulate enough to further elaborate another aspect of deficiency of the Institute by incongruous rules built into the Student Training Contracts, so as to effective enslave them!


the CA Sri Lanka elected officials had better take heed to these warnings sooner rather than later, if they are NOT to face a class action lawsuit that will put all these partners in big audit firms in jail for infringing on the human rights of the people they purport to assist!

As a Chartered Accountant, I can firmly say that the training and potential training can give an individual what it takes to lead any Organization or even any Government anywhere in the world. It is therefore necessary that the people who enter this field are selected on all round capability and rewarded in a way to maximize their productivity to our society  as they can contribute immensely to the development process of Sri Lanka, and the short sighted failures of society namely the Partners in Large Firms who just vegetate there as they will not be able to find employment anywhere else, are left to Lord it over CA Sri Lanka, and determine the fate of thousands of the best in Sri Lanka, and possibly suppress the creativity and talent of those who enter the training period, by their very actions, aimed merely at protecting their turf and their income.

This is NO DIFFERENT to the JVP unions who have resulted in some extremely promising companies closing down and leaving Sri Lanka, due to their selfish practices, only thinking of their personal well-being instead of the greater good of the Nation, the recurring topic of this blog.

     Let us hope we finally are able to attract some true leaders to the CA Sri Lanka for        change!

3 comments:

Jack Point said...

You raise some important points, you got me thinking a bit on the subject - put my own thoughts here:


http://jestforkicks.blogspot.com/2015/06/ca-sri-lanka-audit-firms-their-slaves.html

Anonymous said...

I read Jack Point's post and left a comment there. I think it's relevant to be posted here as well.

When I was an audit trainee back in the early 90's our starting "allowance" was Rs.700/- and when we went on a new audit we had to carry several box files, wear ties and travel by bus in the afternoon dripping of sweat! Finding old files in the stores was a job dedicated to junior trainees and I can remember when we used to even climb ladders in office attire sometimes to find an old, dust covered file to get information. The trainees these days have laptops, travel in A/C luxury and are paid a "princely" starting allowance of Rs.5,000/-!
And I worked for one of the big five firms whose name starts with an E! Nevertheless, although I agree with the sentiments that trainees are grossly underpaid, overworked and it should improve for better, the training and the experience I got as an audit trainee was invaluable and those foundations are what still keep me going as an experienced accountant today.
Iranda K.

Richard C. Lambert said...

As a UK Qualified Chartered Accountant, who had to completely depend on my monthly income as a Student Trainee Accountant to live, ​contadores publicos