Exposed - The Institute Of Chartered Accountants In England And Wales Is Still Failing In Its Public Purpose

27th January 2024

Richard Murphy's Blog 26 January 2024 exposes a problem.

Yesterday, I noted a request by a Guardian journalist for education in basic financial literacy. It was, I thought, a wholly reasonable demand that any government should want to meet.

Except, of course, successive UK governments have never done so. Reasons for this were speculated upon by those commenting on the blog post. The most commonly suggested was that no government would possibly want to do this because to do so would expose them and the financial services industry to a population at least partly able to understand how they are being ripped off, and that would never suit the powers that be. I admit I share that cynicism.

What it also reminded me of was the story I reported here last May in which I noted:

New research on the accounts of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England (ICAEW) and Wales by researchers at the Corporate Accountability Network and academics at the Sheffield University Management School has shown that the ICAEW has benefitted from £148 million of fines and related cost recoveries in excess of expenditure incurred since 2015.

The penalties in question have all been paid by chartered accountants who are members of the ICAEW in respect of substandard work that they have done at cost to members of society at large.

That note then added this comment:

There is no evidence that the ICAEW has spent any of this money, which now sits on its balance sheet. The ICAEW says that the funds form a strategic reserve but its current strategic plans all look to relate to issues that should be funded by its members and none look to have any significant cost attached to them.

Read the blog HERE