NYARUGENGE - The accountancy business in the country will now be soundly regulated following the recent introduction of a body responsible for laying down apt accounting and auditing standards.

The establishment of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda (ICPAR) was unveiled in a press conference at the Finance Ministry (MINECOFIN) on Saturday morning. 

"This is to promote the accountancy profession in the country. In the past, this profession was not formally organized or regulated,” James Musoni, the Finance Minister said while explaining ICPAR’s importance.

He pointed out that a law governing the profession had also been lacking, in addition to lack of minimum professional qualifications or experience needed in the country.

A law establishing the institute was endorsed on August 1.
Article 7 of the law on the institute’s set up and governance stipulates that ICPAR aims at preserving the integrity of the accounting profession and promote competence and the capacity of its members.

Accordingly, the law says that the institute will take disciplinary measures against members unable to perform their duties and those guilty of misconduct.

This will go hand in hand with promoting members’ common interests, advocating for members and promoting its recognition within and outside the country and providing advisory commentary on curricula for pertinent courses, to mention but a few.

The new body will be run by a Governing Council of 10 people, with the Auditor General and Accountant General as ex-officio members.

Musoni pointed out that pending convening of the first General Assembly which will elect the Governing Council, he as Minister of Finance was mandated to appoint an Interim Governing Council (IGC).

He introduced the new body’s nine-man interim executive committee, headed by Evelyn Kamagaju, the Auditor General of state finances.

Gurmit Santokh of Ernst and Young, and Peace Uwase Masozera of Ecobank, are the Vice Chairman and Secretary respectively.

Others include Fred Mujuni, Daniel Zitunga, Joyce Ntare, Peter Rutaremara and Manasseh Twahirwa.

Kamagaju stressed that having a well established organization now, they would seriously look into joining the International Federation of Accountants.

The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) is an association of national professional accountancy organizations that represent accountants employed in public practice, business and industry, the public sector and education, as well as some specialized groups that interface frequently with the profession.

IFAC works to develop the profession globally and to harmonize professional standards to enable accountants to provide services of consistently high quality in the public interest.

Currently, IFAC has 158 member bodies and associates in 123 countries, representing over 2.5 million accountants.

"This law, in actual sense has been long over due…it should have been in place to solve all the prevailing problems … time will come when people will be compelled to work with well established recognized public or private accountants,” Rutaremara responded to a reporter’s queries.

"We are now going to go into schools to sensitize  ... to create public awareness,” he added.

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