The Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) has called for allowing its professionals the authority to conduct financial audits, particularly for small and medium enterprises to foster competition and improve transparency in the country鈥檚 audit system.
At a press conference held at the Economic Reporters鈥� Forum (ERF) auditorium in Dhaka on Tuesday ICMAB President Mahtab Uddin Ahmed FCMA said a lack of professional and competitive auditing has led to serious gaps in financial oversight.
He said around US$17 billion has been laundered abroad by various companies, but these anomalies were not flagged in audits due to the limited capacity and inefficiency of existing audit firms.
鈥楾he current audit ecosystem in Bangladesh is largely ineffective, which has significant implications for the national economy,鈥� said Mahtab.
To address this, he urged the government to allow ICMAB members to perform statutory audits for SMEs alongside chartered accountants, to bring more competition and efficiency into the sector.
In response to a question, the ICMAB president clarified that there is no conflict between the ICMAB and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), stating that both institutes can work in harmony to strengthen the country鈥檚 financial governance.
鈥楤angladesh is now the second-largest economy in South Asia after India, but the number of qualified auditors and audit firms remains insufficient to ensure transparency and good governance,鈥� he noted.
The Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) is a professional body of cost and management accountants constituted under the Cost and Management Accountants Act 2018 and runs under the Ministry of Commerce, he added.
As per Financial Reporting Act 2015, both Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) and ICMAB has been recognized as Professional Accounting Organizations (Under Section 2(19) of FRA 2015), members of both the institute as Professional Accountants (Under Section 2(18) of FRA 2015), auditors of both the institutes as auditors (Under Section 2(13) of FRA 2015).
Currently, ICMAB has a total of more than 1800 members and more than 30,000 registered students out of which 100 (approx.) works as Chief Executive Officers (CEO), 200 works as Chief Financial Officers (CFO) and more than 200 members work overseas.
The Company Act 1994 has offered the right of statutory audit to Chartered Accountants (Section 212) and cost audit to Cost and Management Accountants (Section 220), said president of ICMAB.
Mohammad Salim FCMA, and Md Delwar Hose, FCMA former presidents of ICMAB,
Md. Kausar Alam FCMA, vice-president, Hasnain Thoufiq Ahmed, FCMA, Secretary of ICMAB, among others spoke in the press conference.
