Regional finance professionals meet in Bahrain to discuss ethical standards

A networking event organised by ACCA in Manama heard from His Excellency Dr Abdul-Hussain Bin Ali Mirza, Minister of State for Electricity and Water Affairs, himself an accountant by training. He said that the accountancy profession still felt repercussions following the financial scandals of the past decade on a daily basis and he voiced his concern that more problems may still be uncovered. Those scandals had, he said led to a "general loss of trust and confidence in exactly the supposed 'guardian' of corporate transparency and integrity - the auditor."

One of the senior finance professionals to attend the event was Adnan Hashim, CFO of NCB Capital, a fellow of ACCA, who said: "Trust comes with time and must begin from within. We are seeing a huge change in expectations placed on finance professionals who are not only expected to provide data, but to also provide analysis and insight to enhance business decisions, measure corporate performance, and engage in strategy formulation. In order to gain the trust of both business and the regulator it is essential to maintain a high level of transparency in all financial matters and exposures."

Stuart Dunlop, ACCA's Regional Director for MENASA underlined the work the body was doing, and said that ACCA professionals were expected to adhere to the highest standards, including blowing the whistle on unethical practice in the organisation for which they worked -even if that action might negatively impact on their future prospects.

He stressed that ethics and integrity was at the heart of ACCA's Competency Framework. He said that these qualities had been identified as being critical by employers in a recent survey of finance leaders from around the world.

The vast majority of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) looking to appoint new staff for their businesses believed it was important for each potential employee to have both a breadth and depth of finance expertise and capabilities, with 94% saying it was important to have a good understanding of professionalism and ethics.