3 November 2011
Maputo ? The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday passed the first reading of a government bill establishing the Order of Accountants and Auditors of Mozambique.
This body is roughly equivalent to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Britain, or to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Introducing the bill, Finance Minister Manuel Chang said the existing legal framework for accountancy and auditing is "inadequate and insufficient".
The number of professionals in these areas "has grown considerably in recent years", he noted, "and the development of the Mozambican economy, its growing internationalization, the diversification of the business matrix, and the transformations arising from the information society, imply increasingly rigorous levels of knowledge, and high technical and ethnical standards in these professions".
To date there were 11 auditing companies, 93 accountancy offices, and 3,353 individual accountants registered with the Ministry of Finance, Chang added.
Accountant and auditors had felt the need to establish their own professional body, the Minister said. A series of seminars had been held, debating the draft bill, and involving not only the accounts and auditors themselves, but also trade unions and business associations.
The Order will be responsible for accrediting all accountants and auditors, who will not be able to work in the profession without this accreditation.
It will manage all matters concerned with the exercise of the profession, Chang said, "so as to guarantee its technical and functional independence, the defence of the dignity and prestige of its members, and their rights, and the promotion of ethical principles".
The Order will be asked to propose legislative or regulatory measures which it deems necessary for improving the country's accounting systems, and will give its opinion on any draft legislation affecting accountancy and auditing.
Chang expected the creation of the Order of Accountants and Auditors to make a significant contribution "to the government's efforts to improve the business environment in Mozambique". But it would also be "completely independent of the state and of other public and private organisations".
The main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, abstained in the vote, because the bill did not impose provincial delegations of the Order. Renamo deputy Jose Palaco claimed that if there were no provincial delegations, accountants living in the provinces would be obliged to travel to the Order's headquarters in Maputo to deal with professional matters. "The state is abandoning the accountants in the provinces", he declared.
Chang pointed out that the bill leaves it up to the accountants and auditors themselves to decide what type of territorial organisation they want. It says that the Order has its head office in Maputo and "may open delegations or other forms of representation throughout the national territory, whenever deemed necessary to pursue its ends".
Furthermore, the Order's installation committee had set up regional branches in the south, centre and north of the country, and focal points in all the provinces. Chang thought it would be inappropriate for the government to dictate the exact form of territorial structure the order should adopt.
Renamo was unmoved, and insisted that provincial delegations should be written into the Order's statutes and become legally binding.
In the vote the 183 deputies present from the ruling Frelimo Party and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) voted in favour, while the 43 Renamo deputies in the chamber abstained.
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