CAPA, in conjunction with an outreach meeting of the Public Sector Financial Management Committee (PSFMC), supported an international conference organised by the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA). The International Conference, held in Manila, the Philippines, on 31 March, brought together close to 400 participants, including PICPA members and Philippine government and regulatory authority officials.

The conference covered a variety of topics aimed at improving and exploring opportunities for the accountancy profession in the Philippines, including a study on the status of accountancy practice in the country, the role of CPAs and SMEs in economic development, Philippine’s compliance in the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Agreement, and the Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) Review in the Philippines. CAPA supported the conference through participation in two sessions related to accounting technicians and public sector financial management respectively.

“One of CAPA’s objective is contributing to the development of strong and sustainable professional accountancy organisations (PAOs) capable of providing and maintaining accountants to effectively meet the needs of the country in which they operate. Our participation in PICPA’s International Conference is a good example of how we can deliver on this objective, and we are delighted to support PICPA in achieving their objectives,” said CAPA Deputy President and Chair of PSFMC, Manoj Fadnis, who also presented at the conference.

CAPA Chief Executive and representatives of member organisations from Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom presented and shared experiences in the session about accounting technicians. CAPA Chief Executive also shared initial findings of CAPA’s survey on accounting technicians.

A latter part of the conference discussed matters related to public sector financial management and featured a forum with stakeholders from PICPA, CAPA and authorities from the Philippine public sector and regulatory bodies. CAPA member organisations from Bangladesh, India and the United Kingdom discussed the lack of qualified finance personnel in the public sector and shared insights from various countries on how to overcome the challenge. CAPA’s publication, ‘Attracting and Retaining Finance Personnel in the Public Sector’  which was released last year, was referred to in this session.

“We are delighted to see PICPA’s improvement as a PAO and their continued interest in the public sector related matters, a key focus area for CAPA,” Chief Executive, Brian Blood, commented in relation to CAPA’s outreach meeting in 2014 where a roundtable with various public sector stakeholders was held. “We are also delighted to note that this outreach visit is in conjunction with CAPA’s 60th anniversary, recognising PICPA as the founder and host of the very first CAPA Conference that was held in Manila, the Philippines in 1957,” he added.

Delegates participated well by posing relevant questions to speakers in all the sessions, and regarded the conference as informative and useful.