First graduate from Institute of Chartered Corporate Secretaries

Tuesday, 28 January 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The recently set up Institute of Chartered Corporate Secretaries of Sri Lanka which has been conducting professional examinations every six months has graduated its first Chartered Secretary, Melani Kudaliyanage who is also an Attorney at Law. In 2005 Melani came first in the island in the Law Entrance Examination.

The Chartered Secretaries Examinations have a very comprehensive coverage specialising in subjects such as Company Law, Company Secretarial Practice, Capital Markets Regulations and Practice, Corporate Governance, Business Management, Statistics, Accountancy and Business Law. The emphasis is normally on Company Law, and Company Secretarial Practice and the Capital Markets as the graduates who qualify will eventually be working in corporate offices as Company Secretaries. Kudaliyanage who is a product of Anula Vidyalaya, Nugegoda, was called to the Bar in 2009. She has also completed an Advanced Diploma in Finance, Banking and Insurance. The Chartered Secretaries Examination requires candidates to go through Foundation Stages A and B, Intermediate, Professional Parts I and II, and to finish the examinations they have to submit a Thesis. Kudaliyanage submitted her thesis on the subject of ‘Parate Execution as a Special Privilege the Banks of Sri Lanka Enjoy’. She is currently working as the Assistant Legal Officer handling mainly litigation work at Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd. In the days before the setting up of the local Institute of Chartered Corporate Secretaries, Sri Lankans wishing to qualify as Chartered Secretaries were obliged to sit for the Examinations of the ICSA UK. The local Institute which has been approved as a Professional Institute has been approved by the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission to function as an accredited Training Institute to conduct examinations in this field. Currently a Draft Bill to give statutory recognition to the local Institute has been finalised and is waiting to be presented in Parliament so that the institute can be a statutory body on the same footing as all other professional institutes in the country.