PREAMBLE

Accountants are going through an identity crisis as advancement in Information Technology impacts on their age-long practices and mode of service delivery. Traditional accounting work is fast disappearing as businesses get global and are spurred on by technology. Thus, as we stand on the threshold of information technology revolution across the world, two parallel movements seem to be driving change in the accounting profession.

First, there is a movement to reform corporate governance as the underpinning of global capital markets such that enterprise and accountability are promoted. This implies that there will be changes in financial reporting and auditing standards as well as the processes of institutional oversight and assurances.

Second, there is a great movement for accounting work to be absorbed into the management processes of organization such that accounting work is accessible to non-accountants. Since the direction of this extra-ordinary transition occurring in the accounting profession is still not clear, it is imperative as professionals that we take a hard look at these developments, the needs of the society we serve, the services we render and the value we add to the wealth creation efforts of users of accounting services such that we are able to benefit from the evolving paradigm. Only then can we satisfactorily answer the question, "whither accounting?" and make an informed decision about the future of the ACA holder.

Global Dynamics and the Imperative of Change

As a scientific process, the main objective of accounting is usually to provide information needed to make informed economic decisions particularly in respect of the acquisition, use of scarce corporate resources and the elimination of wastes in the wealth creation chain. In the past, the various systematic accounting information generation processes of gathering, classification, recording, analysis, interpretation and transmission of information were done manually by accounting professionals.

Today, software packages, electronic lodgement and information technocrats have taken over routine bookkeeping, clerical and lodgement functions while the internet and other electronic devices have changed the mode and pace of information dissemination. These developments have been exacerbated by the globalization of business activities, the collapse of economic boundaries amongst nations, cross-border listing of securities and the rise in multi-national corporations world-wide. Worse still, the security of corporate assets and information, which used to be the exclusive preserve of professional accountants engaged as internal auditors, has now been taken over by systems engineers who possess the specialized skill to design safety software for businesses such that access can only be gained by authorized users. As you know, except unauthorized users are denied access, the trade secrets, strategic plans, intellectual property, customer profile, research and development information, etc, of an enterprise can be lost to virus attack, information hackers and competitors at great cost to the entity.

With the unending advancements in information technology and software packages, the accountant is now seen as only one of a number of information suppliers to the business community! Thus, a major fallout of these developments is the convergence of the various disciplines - accounting, systems experts, engineers, programmers, lawyers, bankers and the whittling down of the dominance of accounting in business. Indeed, a recent study conducted by the IFAC Financial and Management Accounting Committee published in March 2001 gave the following as part of the impact of these developments in various countries as contained in the responses received from professional bodies :

• A survey recently conducted found that 38% of the members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales had experienced redundancy over a 10-year period. Moreover, its members in business now spend only 41% of their time on accounting work (ICAEW).
  
• 80% of large American companies intend to move from a reliance on accounting measures, towards multi-disciplinary performance measurement systems (CGA Canada)
  
• Only 10% of CPAs in the United States are fully occupied in work permitted under their license and many are giving up the CPA designation so they can successfully compete in markets for non-traditional services (AICPA)
  
• Today, twice as many accountants work in Indian restaurants in Britain than are employed in coal mining, ship building and steel production combined (CIMA).
  
• Although, the UK's 200,000+ accountants give it the highest ratio of accountants to population in the world, the British Airways is relocating its world-wide accounting functions to India (CIPFA).
  
• The strategic plan for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia for 2000-2002 does not mention accounting at all, and there are some in the Institute who consider that the label "accountant" is outmoded (ICAA).
  
• The Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants has just removed "accountants" from its name, reflecting an international trend. It is now known just as CPA Australia in recognition of the decline in accounting graduates in favour of broader finance and commerce qualifications (CPA Australia)
  
• In appreciation of the fact that today's accountants are called upon to act as business consultants who can communicate well and develop relationships with clients, the Hong Kong Society of Accountants, in 1999, introduced the Qualification Programme (QP) which relies on workshops for the training of accountants. As a move away from the examination mode of certification, the QP was designed to nurture creative thinking, team work and presentation skills beyond proficiency in numbers. The QP thus involves a thorough training schedule for accountants and non-accountants with real-life activity that focuses on discussions and presentation skills needed in the workplace of today.

The NIGERIAN SITUATION

Employers' Preference for MBA
More accountants are increasingly displaced by holders of MBA qualification particularly in non-accounting duties that were ordinarily performed by accountants. As you are aware, the MBA is a general management qualification that seeks to broaden holders' business skills through exposure to such disciplines as accounting, finance, marketing, business policy, operations management, taxation, law, international trade, etc. The surge in the number of schools that offer MBA degree in Nigeria is a clear attestation to its renewed importance. In UK for instance, more than 12,500 people start MBA programmes each year at business schools while a further 4000 students sign up to MBA courses at British universities outside the UK . If this is the trend, there must be something in the MBA that the traditional professional ACA training curricula does not possess.

Convergence of Disciplines
There is an increasing global trend towards the convergence of the professions. Indeed, there is nowhere that this convergence is best confirmed as in the practicing firms' preference for the recruitment of non-accounting graduates as trainees. A cursory look at the adverts placed in newspapers by firms of members in practice in year 2001 showed a great preference by these firms for non-accounting graduates as trainees. For instance:

It would be right to state that these firms merely followed the footsteps of the Institute's Council which approved in 1997, the first degree or higher national diploma in any discipline as the minimum qualification for registering for its professional examinations! The development is a global phenomenon because of the quest for persons with broad-based education. Hence in some firms in the USA today, according to Tinker (1998) the number of non-accountants now exceeds the number of accountants . In other words, the much-celebrated expansion of large firms in recent years has been staffed by now-accountants. According to him, fewer traditional management accountants are likely to be needed in the future because traditional accounting practices are increasingly challenged by developments in the IT world while the mode of information gathering, analysis, processing, transmission and even storage have been altered significantly.

ACA Holders without University Education
In Nigeria and most parts of the world, employers of labour now discriminate against chartered accountants that do not possess any university education on grounds that the professional training they received is restricted and parochial. In a global business environment, resource managers must necessarily possess broad-based knowledge which only the university curricula can provide.

ACA with Degrees and ACA with HNDs
Although, the holder of a Bachelor's degree in accountancy from an accredited University and a holder of the Higher National Diploma from an accredited Polytechnic enjoy the same rating in ICAN's scheme of things, many employers of labour, including practicing firms, are now known to prefer degree holders to HND holders. The samples of adverts above did not mention the HND although one of them said a degree or its equivalent awarded by a reputable university! It is a known fact that no university in Nigeria awards any HND. Thus, their preference is unambiguous. In fact, the career path of the polytechnic holder in the public service has an unofficial bar according to an investigation conducted by The Guardian newspaper . According to the report, while the HND holder can rise to Grade level 13 or USS 12, the graduate can rise to Grade level 14 or USS 13. It added that some new generation banks have a policy of not recruiting HND holders at all. Discrimination against holders of the higher national diploma qualification is a serious indictment of our undue knack for certificates considering the impressive profile and success stories of many of our members who graduated from the polytechnics.

Increased Number of Professional Bodies
Today, there is an upsurge in the number of professional bodies that are claiming statutory mandate to perform duties that were traditionally performed by chartered accountants, e.g., Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Business Recovery and Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BRIPAN), Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), Certified Information Systems Auditors (CISA), Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, etc. This is an evidence that the accounting profession is in a state of flux in which it must seek to rediscover itself so that it can assert its prime position in corporate governance.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION

The aforementioned remarkable changes rapidly occurring in the business environment therefore hold crucial implications for Chartered Accountants in government, public practice, finance, commerce and industry. These include

Inevitability of change
Given that the nature of the work performed by accountants is changing, the only option he has is to adapt to the universal development to stay relevant. Yet, change is the most difficult of all human endeavour as old habits die hard.

Increased competition
The involvement of other types of professionals in the business of providing information needed to take decisions, implies increased competition for professional accountants. The rate of competition will increase with globalization and development of more software packages with negative impact on the number of accountants engaged and the attractiveness of the profession. For instance, between 1989 and 1994 in USA, student registrations for the uniform CPA examinations fell by 8% from 142,135 to 130,803. For the same period, overall hiring by CPA firms fell precipitously by 23% from 27, 840 to 21,470. Out of the 8000 people recruited by KPMG in USA in 1997, only 1500 were accounting graduates while others were mainly non-accountants like systems experts, engineers, lawyers, etc. Only a few of this number were experienced accountants. If accounting is synonymous with the auditing work of the Big 6 CPA firms in USA, according to one expert, then evidence of economic decline is widespread .

Decline in traditional accounting function
The demand for traditional accounting services has increasingly become stagnant because of the rapidly changing business environment, changing needs of clients and quest for non-accounting services. From the profile of practicing firms, statutory audit earns much less than other advisory functions. In USA for instance, in Year 2000, General Electric paid KPMG $23.9 million for auditing its books and $79.7 million for other services while General Motors paid Deloitte & Touche $17 million for its audit and $79 million for other services .

Corporate governance issues
Conflict of interest
There is an increasing cry that the involvement of auditors in the provision of other services to clients has great negative impact on the quality of audit services. Indeed, the allegation is that inexperienced professionals are often deployed to perform audit jobs because of the unwillingness of clients to pay for audit services.

That this allegation has some validity is buttressed by the willingness of audit firms to settle cases of negligence out of court rather than justify the quality of their audit services. Recently according to The Economist Andersen (formerly Arthur Andersen) agreed to pay US$7million for "improper professional conduct" arising from the auditing of Waste Management in the early 1990s. The USA rubbish collector's unqualified accounts for the years 1992-96 were subsequently found to have overstated pre-tax income by more than $1.4 billion. "Without admitting or denying the allegations, Andersen agreed to pay what is the biggest-ever penalty imposed by the USA SEC on a leading firm of accountants", the reported added.
The view is firmly founded that audit services are increasingly sacrificed to retain other more juicy jobs. It is on record that Waste Management paid Andersen $7.5 million in audit fees and $11.8 million in other services between 1991 and 1997. It would be interesting to have comparative figures for Nigeria. Without adequate safeguards, independence of the auditor will be impaired while assurance services will loose its relevance as a mechanism for lending credence to stewardship reports.

Competing values
Over and above this is the problem of competing values. Usually the value of 'independence', associated with governance related work in the profession, is set against the value of 'mutual involvement', associated with management related work in the profession. How are both values to be maintained by individual accountants, accounting firms, professional accountants, and the profession generally in the public interest? How can professional Institutes retain the core value of 'independence' as the bulk of their membership migrates to management related work and competes with non-accountants who profess 'service' oriented values? How will 'independence' as a core value help or hinder them, as they introduce non-accountants as members, and seek to enlarge their purview? Such value dissonance or incompatibility may signal the line of fracture in the profession in the future, as individuals, 'accounting' firms and associations align themselves with one or the other value proposition.

Such a fracture already is evident, as accountants become managers, accounting firms divide along governance related and management related lines, and the focus of regulators sharpens on equity and transparency in corporate governance structures while management is impelled towards ongoing value creation. Ironically, both types of value are worthy and socially beneficial. However, they may need to be centerpieces of different professions.

Emergence of skill gap
The increased range of services that the accountant is expected to provide particularly in an IT-environment requires more skills than he presently has. A major concern among opinion leaders in our profession today is that the staggering fast changing information technologies will overwhelm the control capabilities of professional accountants, unless they constantly renew their skills at a speed consistent with changes taking place. This is an inevitable option because syllabus review, no matter how regular, can never change at the speed of change.

Another dimension to the skills gap is the fear that the acquisition of specialist IT skills by professional accountants may not be worth its trouble as Bill Gates' Microsoft has promised to deliver products that can be operated by "a generation of blithering idiots, not highly trained (expensive) university graduates". To underscore this skepticism, many student- recruits in US Big 6, according to Tinker (1998) now jokingly refer to the CPA as "cut", "paste" and "attach"!

Mode of training will change
Given the impact of technology on accounting practices, it is imperative that the mode of training new entrants into the profession must be reviewed. Accounting education curricula must be tailored to meet the needs of the marketplace rather than proficiency in recording, bookkeeping and traditional financial reporting techniques. The curricula should aim to produce broad-minded, technically skilled professionals. The traditional four-year degree programme is now seen as inadequate for an appropriately skilled graduate. More emphasis should be placed on a general education, internationalization of curricula, extensive use of Information Technology, recognition of prior learning and experience together with appropriate technical skills.

Harmonization of standards
Due to the globalization of economic activities and the rise in the number of multinational corporations, there will be the urgent need for accounting and auditing standards to be harmonized. This will encourage uniform and consistent reporting format that will ease comparability and promote transparency and accountability across cultures. The International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO) in conjunction with IFAC is already working towards the achievement of this goal .

Lifelong learning
In a perpetual state of flux, life long learning will become inevitable for accounting professionals if their knowledge will not become obsolete with the passage of time. To be able to meet the changing needs of clients, add value to economic results as well as justify the confidence of the public, the professional accountant must imbibe the culture of learning to learn. Unfortunately according to Argyris (1991), every company faces a learning dilemma: the smartest people find it the hardest to learn. Indeed he adds "professionals embody the learning dilemma: they are enthusiastic about continuous improvement and often the biggest obstacle to its success" .

Specialisation among practitioners
With information and knowledge explosion has come the need for specialization and recognition of the diverse activities of the members of the accounting profession. While a generalist approach holds some allure for practitioners, the advantages or economies of specialization cannot be discountenanced. For practicing firms, it is important that their partners specialize in different areas so that their enterprise will remain a one-stop financial supermarket.

In fact, people at all levels of the organization must combine the mastery of some highly specialized technical expertise with ability to work effectively in teams, form productive relationships with clients and customers, and critically reflect on and then change their own organizational practices.

Amalgamation of professional bodies
It is becoming obvious that the challenge of change will impose severe strain on the resources of professional institutes and the technical skills of practitioners. The prohibitive cost of acquiring technical skills and regularly update same, implies that professional bodies should cooperate and indeed merge in order to enjoy the associated synergies. With globalization and international mobility of capital, auditing and accounting standards are more likely to be harmonized by professional bodies who are already striving to align their training curricula such that reciprocal relationships are fostered under the aegis of IFAC. Such a global body will issue one credential that will essentially define a new profession. The holders of such a global qualification will be " rooted in strategy, facilitators of organizational change, savvy in performance measurement systems, entrepreneurial nature, globally aware and grounded in knowledge integration". What is proposed according to IFAC is a new "global profession focused on knowledge integration that creates value" .

Name of qualification
As noted above, a number of professional bodies are prepared to take in members without prior educational or experiential backgrounds in accounting. Some also accept the inevitability of multi-disciplinary practices, involving accountants and non-accounting professionals. Under the emerging scenario and considering the multifaceted roles the professional accountants are expected to play in business management, the title of Chartered Accountant (ACA) will not adequately capture the skills he possesses and the services he renders. In fact, the evolving paradigm will not only herald a shift in labels from accountant to more general "professional services provider", they also open the profession to the possibilities of a future that will break with the past. The title that he should adopt is one on which we need to collectively make contributions. On this however, I do not presently have any opinion.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The accounting product line is changing fast. Traditional attestation function is loosing its attraction because of its conservative, historical nature. Quality assurance, environmental audit and risk management services are now desired more by clients. There is now a yawning skills-gap between the existing accounting knowledge and the requirement of the workplace which requires the accounting professional to be a generalist.

In the emerging scheme of things, the Chartered Accountant is expected to be able to render proactive and invaluable services to clients in cultures that are diverse thereby creating the impression that the chartered accountant is a generalist, a jack of all trade and master of all. These societal expectations have continued to exert great pressures on the technical skill and competence of the chartered accountant irrespective of the sector in which he works. The Institute believes strongly that, except the Chartered Accountant receives technical support and updates his specialized knowledge regularly, he cannot possibly play the identified multifaceted roles efficiently. As a responsive professional body, the Institute is desirous of assisting its members such that they can cope with relative ease in the following ways.

Creation of Faculties
The creation of faculties is one strategic initiative it has evolved to address the challenge. As distinct from the Sections which the Institute initially created as associations or groups of professionals that operate in the same sector, faculties are centres of excellence which bring together experts committed to the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge in a particular field.

The aim of creating faculties is to help the Institute regulate the practice of special branches of accountancy, issue guidelines and performance benchmarks for members in these sectors in line with global practice. These Faculties will create an interactive forum for chartered accountants in these sectors as well as continuously strive to educate members on their peculiar statutory duties and responsibilities such that a culture of good corporate governance is evolved by the Institute.

In addition to the creation of the following Faculties over which the existing Public Practice Section will have oversight responsibilities: Audit, Tax, Information Technology, Management Consultancy, Business Recovery & Insolvency and Investment Business, a special Faculty should also be created to take care of Internal Audit function so that all specialist functions are addressed.

Specialized MBA degree for ACA HOLDERS
Since holders of the ACA qualification who had no university degree are now increasingly finding it difficult to secure employment, it is recommended that the Institute should hold discussions with selected universities of repute such that they can package specialized MBA and M.Sc degree programmes for chartered accountants. This recommendation has been accepted by Council pursuant to which it has set a special Committee under the chairmanship of Past President E.F. Oke. As envisaged, such specialized programmes should be for a duration shorter than that of the regular MBA or M.Sc degree programme because of the quality of the Institute's certification processes.

B.SC Degree for Pre-ACA Holders
Since the Institute's entry qualification is now a first degree or its equivalent, there is need to open lines of communications with the National Universities Commission so that all students who come into the professional stream through the AAT programme and have passed the Intermediate stage of the Institute's qualifying examinations can obtain a bachelor's degree in applied accounting after writing and passing a research project moderated by selected universities. If accepted, the Research paper will test the candidates' skills in the conduct of independent research, analysis and evaluation of evidence, communication and use of IT. This initiative finds antecedents in the current arrangement between the ACCA and Oxford Brookes University in which any ACCA student who passes the second stage is awarded a Bachelor's degree in Applied Accounting after passing the Research Analysis Project moderated by the university. Students will be able to obtain degrees while working full time without attending a university.

However, for this initiative to work, the selected universities might need to assess the syllabus of ICAN, monitor the quality of it's questions and examination processes to ensure that these satisfy the standards necessary for a degree programme while ICAN would do the same for the selected tertiary institutions. Considering the technical standards of our examinations and syllabus, this should not pose any problem. If this initiative is accepted, students will be registered as both ICAN and the Selected University's students and as such, will be required to adhere to the disciplinary codes of both bodies.

Hands-on Practical Training In IT for Accounting professionals
The pervasive role that information technology (IT) now plays in the discharge of the duties of chartered accountants is common knowledge. Thus, any chartered accountant not proficient in the use of IT will fall into irrelevance as his efficiency and competence will be jeopardized. Therefore, the Institute's syllabus is already being urgently reviewed to contain more practical IT courses in line with emerging developments. In addition, it is contemplated that special certificate courses in IT for members could be organized by the Institute in conjunction with other organisations through its MCPE programme. Such courses that would serve as proof of proficiency of members could earn MCPE credit hours.

Life-Long Learning.
Given the rapidity of the changes in information technology, their likely effects on the accounting profession in this 21st century is going to be so overwhelming and wide ranging that the character and complexion of the profession will almost certainly change beyond recognition by the present breed of accountants. What we are presently experiencing, in fact, represents a tip of the iceberg. Thus, it should be expected that the competence and relevance of present day accountants will be severely tested. This is a serious challenge to the very essence of accounting services. The enormity of these challenges has made a more aggressive, continuous pursuit of knowledge the inevitable strategic option of our time. Therefore, the intensification of the current continuing professional education training programme will continue such that the mandatory aspect becomes unnecessary. Chartered accountants of my dream should be professionals who would not be coerced to learn by fear of sanctions but by the constant need to the fight obsolescence of knowledge.

CONCLUSION

There is a universal agreement that accounting speaks the language of business and therefore its applications have no sectoral limitations. Although accounting permeates all productive economic activities, its ability to respond adequately to the changing needs and conditions of users is now being gradually circumscribed by the advancement in information technology, increasing globalisation of economic activities, changing consumer tastes, sophistication of investment instruments as well as the intricacies of corporate and public governance. The increased reliance on the expertise of the chartered accountant by most actors in the economic scene and the spate of litigation against the auditor globally in perceived cases of professional negligence, point to the need to re-appraise his operational methodology.

In my view, since the future of the Institute and profession is inextricably tied to the willing acceptance of its products by users of accounting services and employers of labour, the Institute had to evolve a proactive and an enduring solution such that the future of new entrants into the profession will be assured and devoid of prejudices.

The Institute, and indeed the profession, is at the threshold of history in which the advancement in information technology continues to have profound impact on the practice of accounting and its mode of service delivery. Although the changing techniques will not be unique to accountants alone, the Institute believes that effective, adequate and proactive responses must be the result of well thought-out, funded, coordinated and far-sighted research efforts. Here lies the justification for the recent endowment of professorial chairs in accounting which is part of the holistic efforts to expand the frontiers of accounting knowledge. This initiative will support the activities of the Institute's Accounting Research Foundation which currently sponsors research into areas considered germane to the profession at large. Besides, we shall continue to maintain our relationships with other professional bodies such that our network of technical information is reinforced.

There is no doubt that Professional Institutes are currently navigating a difficult path. They therefore need to be flexible, enterprising and business-like as well as cultivate expertise, mutuality in relationships, and the acceptance of a greater good. In short, they need to blend management and professionalism.

The Institute's vision is to continue to produce accounting professionals who are pragmatic and have broad-based orientation and objective views of emerging situation. They will not only be proactive in thoughts and actions but also help to shape the future of clients' stakes or investments. These will be men and women who do not only have problem-solving orientation but also consistently add value to their clients' business. Their versatility, professional excellence and conduct will automatically enhance the image of the Institute such that the accountancy profession remains the most attractive, sought after, value-driven and respectable profession in the country.

REFERENCES

Argyris, C. (1991), "Teaching Smart People How to learn". HBR, May/June, P. 99-109.

Birkett, W.P.& Poullaos, C.(2001), "From Accounting to Management: A global perspective" in A profession Transforming: From Accounting to Management by IFAC-FMAC P. 1-20.

Ekeigwe, E.E.(1997), "Rapidly Advancing Information Technology: How can the Accountant Cope?". Paper presented at the Preparatory Workshop on World Congress of Accountants organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

Heazlewood, T. (1998), "Bean Counter!!? Been there, done that, what next?". ACCA Professor's Round Table in Accounting & Business, July/August. P19-21.

IFAC(1998), "Redesigning Designations- are current accountant designations ripe for review?". IFAC Quarterly, October, 1998.

Smith, S. (2001), "Back to the Blackboard". Accountancy, July 2001. P. 50-51.
Steele, J.E & Ward, L.B. (1974), "MBAs: Mobile, well situated, well paid". HBR.January/February.p.99-110.

The Economist (2001), "Andersen's Fairy Tales" June 23,2001. Page 81.
The Guardian, Tuesday, September 4, 2001, p.29, 31 and 33

Tinker, T. (1998), "The other millennium bomb: education malaise and technological change". ACCA Professor's Round Table in Accounting & Business. July/August P.17