The Chartered Accountant

FROM THE PRESIDENT
www.cpeicai.org. In case, you find any discrepancy
in the actual number of CPE hours earned
by you and those appearing on the CPE Portal,
please contact the concerned Programme Organising
Unit. Your suggestions for inclusion
of some newer topics/areas under the CPE
Programmes will always be welcome.
Revival of Lapsed Membership
Friends, as you may have noticed, the Institute
has taken several initiatives to bring all
its members closer to it. I find that names of
many members stand struck off due to nonreceipt
of fees. This could be due to nonreceipt
of communication from ICAI consequent
upon change of address etc. Realizing
the importance of the fact that the CA qualification
is a coveted qualification, having been
acquired after hard work and passing through
rigorous system of examinations, the Council
has approved an Amnesty Scheme to enable
such members whose membership stands cancelled
as on 13.05.2008 due to non-payment of
membership fees, to get their membership restored
with retrospective effect upon payment
of membership fee for the entire period of removal
and submission of Form 9. This scheme
is currently in force and will remain valid up
to 31st December, 2008. It is satisfying for me
to note that this scheme has evoked a very encouraging
response and about 1000 members
have already availed themselves of the facility
of the retrospective restoration of their membership.
I urge all the remaining professionals
whose name has got removed from the
ICAI membership list due to non-payment of
membership fee to benefit from the Amnesty
Scheme. All such members can visit www.icai.
org and click the link ‘Restore Your Membership’
for online submission of Form ‘9’. May
I also request you to help in identifying such
members whose names stand struck off and
pass on this message to them! Your help can
be crucial because this message will otherwise
not reach them as they do not receive the journal.
CAs are the Best Internal Auditors.
Internal audit is an area where CAs are by far
the best professionals available. The independence,
integrity, transparency, accountability,
skill, competence and ability which chartered
accountants possess are best suited for internal
audit. A CA’s flair to grasp the intricacies of an
entity gives him an edge in the area of internal
audit. The ability to deal with numbers and the
skills acquired during the course of practical
work experience puts a chartered accountant
way ahead of others to carry out the internal
audit. To further enhance this competence, the
Institute has come out with the Standards on
Internal Audit and has set up an Internal Audit
Standards Board. This will further enhance the
visibility of chartered accountants and at the
same time ensure top quality work being done
by the chartered accountants.
Forensic Accounting
Forensic Accounting encompasses the use of
accounting/auditing, investigative skills, data
mining and the use of the computer as an
audit tool. Chartered accountants, with their
sound grounding in accounting/auditing, are
the most appropriate professionals to offer forensic
accounting and fraud detection services.
Realizing this, a Certificate Course on Forensic
Accounting and Fraud Detection is being started.
The course will help members in acquiring
investigative skills required to uncover corporate/business
frauds, measure result damage
and provide support/counsel by applying accounting
and auditing principles for the detection
of frauds. The details of this course
are available on the Institute website. Meanwhile,
work on starting a Certificate Course on
Corporate Governance as well as a Certificate
Course on Enterprise Risk Management is going
on and I will be sharing more details of it in
my next communication.
Friends, a number of other initiatives are also
underway that are meant to add to the capacity,
capabilities and skills of our professionals with
the overall objective of making them the best
in the world. I look forward to receiving your
guidance and help in achieving this objective.
CA. Ved Jain
New Delhi, November 25, 2008
THE CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT 949 DECEMBER 2008