CA Sri Lanka launches SME toolkit to empower SMEs and SMPs

Friday, 24 January 2014 06:44 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Cheranka Mendis Empowering small and medium practices in Sri Lanka to conduct effective auditing processes – an essential for good business – the Institute of Charted Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) on Wednesday launched a SME toolkit which would comprehensively guide practitioners towards better financial consolidation. The national accounting body will make a serious contribution towards further developing the SME and SMP sectors in the country within the next two years, bringing innovative solutions to boost their business activities. The toolkit, which was launched with the presentation of the kit to International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) President Warren Allen,

consists of all formats and tools required to conduct an effective audit. “This is targeted towards small and medium practice which are our members performing audit and other consulting services,” CA Sri Lanka President Arjuna Herath said. “This has all tools necessary.” Fee is always an issue with SMEs and viability of audits is an issue for small and medium practices, due to its costs. “We want them to be equipped to deal with audits efficiently. We believe this toolkit could be an important weapon for small and medium practicing members.” Herath noted that going forward, even with the Government’s aggressive regional development, a significant issue will crop up revolving around the human resource limitations. While infrastructure has been rolled out significantly in terms of road network, power, energy, and companies are looking at penetrating all provinces, the issue now is if we have the necessary human resource in those areas to fulfil the tasks development will require. If they are to take people from Colombo, again cost becomes an issue. Having confidently assured President Mahinda Rajapaksa that the institute will look into training accountants in local authorities in the provincial level – following a request made by the Head of State – Herath noted that plans are underway to explore education and skill development of professionals in provinces. “We as an institute have taken a call on wanting to go to provinces in terms of conducting education, finding training institutes for charted accountants in their locations, and in fact qualify in their own location so that they will not need to migrate to Colombo. Because once they migrate to Colombo the tendency is not to get back.” The aim is to educate and train professional accountants to serve the industries and commerce in those areas. “We have branch networks in a few centres and we plan to have a few more centres set up,” he said speaking on network expansion related to SMEs. “We will also work with educational institutes for them to set up operations in those areas.” CA Sri Lanka will also work with universities to have lecturers from chosen universities performing lectures for the institute in those provinces. “The whole idea is to build a human resource base for the regions to be economic and growth centres in the future,” Herath added. Opportunities also lie in the SME level for Charted Business Accountant (CBA) members who are qualified as mid level accountants to serve the requirements of the SMEs. “This initiative will hopefully bring about a transformation on human resource requirement in the regions and provinces,” he reflected. – Pic by Lasantha Kumara

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