20th Amendment: Deafening silence by chartered accountants

When protests and uproars are on the rise from all nooks and corners against the proposed 20th Amendment, it is very strange to notice the deafening silence of a so-called noble profession even when their staple livelihood is in grave danger. Yes, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, the primary accounting body of the nation, remains in absolute silence when its prime activity ‘Auditing’ is to be removed by the 20th Amendment. 

‘Auditing’ is considered as an essential tool to ensure that activities are carried out according to the laid down rules and regulations. It is far more important to audit an entity when public funds are utilised. The public should have the right to know whether good governance is strictly observed in those entities. For this ‘Auditing’ by an independent third party professional is the ideal tool to express an opinion of the state of affairs. It is considered as an essential mechanism in the world over because of the integrity, professionalism and the independence displayed by the auditor when carrying out an audit assignment. 

However, the 20th Amendment is trying to remove some salient entities from the argus-eyed auditors so that billion rupees worth of spending will not go under the radar. When there is a danger of this kind of magnanimous give-out is to be brought up by the 20th Amendment, CA Sri Lanka is watching it like a passer-by. Their own profession is at stake and more than that the right of every citizen to know fair existed in all spending is also at stake. CA Sri Lanka is keeping silent – a damning silence – as professionals they owe a duty to the general public when wrong things happen. Remember what Edmond Burke said: “Evil to prosper for the good men to keep their mouths shut.”

When lawyers, doctors, other professionals and even monks and PHIs are expressing their views, what makes CA Sri Lanka silent? Is the Council infested with pawns and political motivated members?

Vociferous attacks on proposed 20th Amendment with regard to Auditor General and Audit Commission are levelled against the Government by politicians and other pressure groups whom the public does not believe as having any knowledge in this highly specialised subject of auditing. The public is eagerly waiting to hear from the guardians of capitalism in the country, CA Sri Lanka, the same meticulous resentments simmering inside those extravagant financial geeks as the unemotionally clinical pronouncements of medical profession on COVID-19.

Corporate stakeholders, in their tittering gossip, attribute this muted etiquette partly to indulging and/or idolising with fraudsters by princely accounting supplemented by, on the other part, investors’ frequent belligerence arising out of trappings of the accounting profession – the accounting standards. 

Will CA Sri Lanka and the accounting fraternity open their mouth and say something for the sake of the profession? We are yearning to be free from our relative penury.

A concerned citizen