Exodus of Chartered Accountants: A feasible solution

Tuesday, 29 August 2023 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka President Sanjaya Bandara has revealed at the media conference held the other day at their head office that the speed at which CAs leaving for overseas has increased during the past year or so due to the prevailing economic crisis in Sri Lanka. He has said that out of 9,000 members more than 3,000 members have left the country (and this includes even my son, a CA who left for Dubai a couple of months ago together with his family).

Men may come and men may go but I go on forever…so says Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem “The Brook”. Therefore, we shouldn’t unnecessarily worry about the professionals leaving for greener pastures and no one is indispensable in my opinion.

Here are some steps the President of CASL could take to mitigate the effects of CAs leaving the island – we need to fast track the path to qualify as a CA by adopting all or a few of the following recommendations, and of course without sacrificing the quality of education.

1. Entry criteria to be GCE O/L instead of GCE A/L with minimum of 3 passes (for CIMA the eligibility is that s/he has to be only over 16 years)

2. Syllabus content to be changed, upgraded and minimised. Supplementary classes to be held online/e-learning as well to expedite covering of the syllabus.

3. Frequency of conducting exams to be increased if it is not so at present

4. Duration of the entire course to be reduced to maximum possible

5. Apprenticeship/training duration also to be reduced

6. Allow students to complete the entire course and let them gain experience thereafter. This option should be granted to the students.

I suggest that the Organisation of Professional Association of Sri Lanka (OPASL), which comprises professionals from various disciplines, should brainstorm to find innovative solutions to recoup the loss of professionals, medical, engineering, teaching, etc. because of their migration. The respective institutions should ensure that the candidates qualify without sacrificing on the quality of the examinations and they pass out with better EQ and SQ – for them to be professionals par excellence.

I strongly feel that in this era of AI, Chat GPT and what not, the above suggestions can be implemented to overcome the problem of the exodus of all the professionals.

Mohamed Zahran

Layard’s Broadway,

Colombo