ICPAU sued over amendment of membership criteria

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A woman has petitioned the Constitutional Court seeking to quash the law that gives powers to the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda to make changes in the eligibility criteria of its members.

Sarah Anena contends that section 12(s) of the Accountants Act of Uganda 2013, gives powers to ICPAU to draft the legibility on how one can become a member arguing that it is contrary to the Constitution which gives powers to Parliament to make provisions that have any force of law in the country.

Through her lawyers of Kamulegeya Advocates, Anena who did ACCA from Mat Abacus Business School in Kampala says that her aim was to become an accountant and become Uganda’s first female Auditor General but then after reading the Accountants Act of 2013, she realized that she would be a member of an accounting society whose membership is of equivalent status to the ICPAU.

However, when she visited the offices of ICPAU in Kampala inquiring about the accounting societies whose membership is equivalent to ICPAU, she was reportedly told of a term called Foreign Accountancy Qualifications.  According to Anena, this term didn’t make sense to her because it restricted direct membership of the Institute to only members of Accounting societies from within the East African region which she argues is unreasonable.

Anena’s lawyer Shamil Letia Atabua contends that the criteria is not provided for under the law and that ICPAU has been arguing that section 12(s) of the Accountants Act gives them powers to redraft membership eligibility criteria and introduce Foreign Accountancy Qualifications which amounts to usurping powers of Parliament.

Accordingly, Atabua wants the court to quash the law on grounds that it is unconstitutional and also illegal.

The ICPAU spokesperson John Lennon Sengendo says that for one who has studied outside schools in East Africa and has done courses like ACCA, there are two papers that he or she has to do to practice in Uganda and also acquire membership.

According to Ssengendo, Anena has to do a paper on Tax Accounting and Public Sector Accounting and Reporting because the teaching in foreign countries is different from the tax regime of Uganda and other East African countries like Kenya and Burundi.

Sengendo adds that when one passes the two papers, they then can be enrolled and given practicing certificates.

The Constitutional Court has already fixed the case which also lists the Finance Minister Matia Kasaija and the Registrar of Accountants Derrick Nkajja as the respondents for conferencing on February 8, 2022.

Cases of people struggling to get enrolled to practice their professional careers are not new in Uganda.

In the recent past, law students who have not studied in common law countries have found difficulties to get enrolled as Advocates of Courts of Judicature in Uganda.

Also, some students who have obtained Bachelor’s Degrees in Law from abroad like Daniel Adyera who graduated from the University of Land have since petitioned the High Court after the Law Development Centre failed to admit him for the bar course.

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