Part One
ON August 14, 2018, I turned over my chairmanship of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy (BOA) of the Philippines to the appointed successor. It was just over four years ago when my term started on May 15, 2014.
On June 14, 2014, the “Expanding Horizons” initiative of the BOA was launched. The EH initiative represents the various undertakings and plans of BOA to pursue the mandates prescribed in the accountancy law (Republic Act 9298) to supervise and regulate the practice of accountancy. Subsequently, the Six-point Expanding Horizons Plan was formulated with the vision of upgrading the profession and the Filipino accounting professional to levels higher than that of global standards.
The highlights of the EH initiative include the reform of the educational and professional accountant qualification systems; regulation of the profession; globalization thrust; governance and ethics; stakeholders engagements; and various priority and special events.
Pursuing these initiatives provided me the opportunity to engage with a great number of organizations and persons in both the local and global accountancy community. I continue to maintain and build on these relationships.
Since leaving the BOA, I have gone back full steam to my consulting practice in tax and accounting advisory services. What is exciting with my professional directions now is that I still continue doing many of the activities that I used to pursue in my former position with a renewed vigor and perspective. While before I was engaged as a regulator, I am now able to go about the various developments in the area of accountancy as a professional accountant cum consultant.
The accountancy world continues to emerge and expand. In the local scene, there are major concerns that a professional accountant should be aware and involved in. These include the ongoing tax reform implementation and legislation, the compliance with data privacy measures and the impact of the anti-money laundering rules. In the global accounting community, the international accounting professional bodies are addressing the issues of audit quality, governance and ethics in the practice, impact of digital and technology developments and the emergence of enhanced external reporting, such as Integrated and Sustainability Reporting.
The accountancy profession in the Philippines is already in its 95th year of existence. The profession has over 190,000 Certified Public Accountants, with a significant number working in most parts of the world. The CPAs in the Philippines are very much involved and ingrained in society and the various communities. The professional accounting organizations are very much engaged in uplifting the welfare of their members and profession. All of these attest to the important role of the accountancy profession and its stakeholders in our country. It is incumbent upon us in the profession to continue working hard to fulfill our responsibilities and mandate. Work hard on our compliance, innovation, professionalism, advocacy and globalization, or Cipag for short.
Definitely, by focusing on our Cipag, we will continue to go a long way and expand our horizons.
To be continued
Joel L. Tan-Torres is a Certified Public Accountant who placed No. 1 in the May 1979 CPA Board Examinations. He was the former commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue from 2009 to 2010 and the chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy from 2014 to August 2018. He is a partner of Reyes Tacandong & Co.
This column accepts contributions from accountants, especially articles that are of interest to the accountancy profession, in particular, and to the business community, in general. These can be e-mailed to boa.secretariat.@gmail.com