Categories: SpeechesPublished On: 23/09/2023

 

  • En Mohamad Faisal Malik, MIA Vice President and fellow Council Members
  • Representatives from the Accountant General Department
  • Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Mohamad Azmi Ali, Registrar
  • Dr Wan Ahmad Rudirman Wan Razak, Chief Executive Officer
  • My Fellow Members of MIA

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  • Good morning. Welcome to our 37th Annual General Meeting. Thank you to our members for being with us on a Saturday.
  • It is an honour to address members once again at the AGM in my capacity as MIA President, and on behalf of the Council.
  • Before I proceed, MIA would like to extend our congratulations to Pn Nor Yati Ahmad on her appointment as the new Accountant General of Malaysia. We wish her the best in her new role and look forward to working together on the advancement of the accountancy profession and the nation.
  • Now, for the next twenty minutes or so, I will share some key highlights of MIA’s efforts to strengthen the future relevance of the profession, for the financial year ended 30 June 2023 and for the year to come.
  • I would also like to take this opportunity to clear up some matters of concern that have been raised by members, so that we can move forward as a profession, to drive our nation building purpose.

<Accountants Act 1967>

  • Firstly, I would like to update members on MIA’s continuing engagement with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) pertaining to the repeal of the Accountants Act 1967. This has been an ongoing initiative throughout the past few years, and MIA continues to engage proactively with the MOF on the matter.
  • I would like to emphasise that, in reference to the repeal to the Accountants Act 1967, MIA has been carrying out its obligation towards the stakeholders. Currently, the repeal is still at the discussion stage at the Accountant General Department, for it to be presented to MOF. The input of stakeholders shall be considered after the discussion of the repeal has been concluded, and the draft bill is ready for the stakeholders’
  • Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind all members that the repeal to the Accountants Act 1967 is for the purpose of implementing the recommendations of the Committee to Strengthen the Accountancy Profession (CSAP). To recap, the CSAP is a committee set up by the MOF which highlighted the shortcomings of the accountancy profession in Malaysia. The CSAP provided recommendations on areas where the accountancy profession can be further strengthened namely in regards to Governance, Enforcement and Competency Framework, after examining and scrutinising a report by the World Bank, “Report on Observance of Standards and Codes in Accounting and Auditing for Malaysia” (ROSC AA), released in year 2012.
  • Part of the CSAP’s recommendations relate to enhancing competency and diversifying talent to meet market needs. Under the oversight of the MIA Education Board, and following intensive research and analysis along with extensive stakeholder input and engagement, the MIA Competency Framework has been initiated to enable the future relevance of the profession and future fitness of accountancy professionals.
  • Allow me to explain more about the MIA Competency Framework, which is considered in the proposed amendment to the Accountants Act 1967. The Framework has gone through the rigorous process of several roundtable discussions and public consultation, whereby the Exposure Draft has been issued to MIA members, MIA member firms, employers, professional accountancy organisations, universities, Government agencies, associations and the public including the Deans Council, Malaysian Accounting Firms Association (MAFA) and Association of Malay Chartered Accountant Firms (AMCAF) in 2019 for their feedback. The comments from all parties had been deliberated at length by the MIA Education Board and Council before the document was approved to be released to the public. If you would like to know more, the MIA Competency Framework is publicly available on the MIA website.
  • In summary, MIA has followed the proper steps in proposing the repeal to the Accountants Act as well as in proposing the MIA Competency Framework. Therefore, we urge all stakeholders to remain patient while waiting for the deliberation process at the Accountant General Department to be completed, and for the related policies to be approved by MOF.

Ladies and gentlemen

<Future Relevance of the Profession>

  • Now, I would like to share some highlights of FY2022/2023 that are geared to assuring the future relevance of the profession.
  • With regards to competency development, MIA as the regulator and developer of the profession takes great effort to prepare professional development programmes that are specially tailored to enhance competency and develop future fit accountancy professionals in Malaysia.
  • For FY2022/2023, MIA successfully organised close to 1,000 CPE programmes including complimentary webinars that benefited more than 35,000 accountancy professionals, in key areas of accounting, auditing including ISQM or the International Standard for Quality Management, reporting, taxation, ESG and sustainability, digital transformation, as well as CFO and finance function transformation, in order to benefit our members in the four segments of PAIB, public practice, public sector and academia. A memorable achievement was the MIA International Accountants Conference 2023, our first hybrid conference which drew close to 3,500 delegates.
  • MIA worked to inculcate a strong ethical foundation through ongoing ethics education and initiatives such as quizzes, webinars and articles. Ethics is fundamental to public trust in the conduct of professional accountants, and it must always be the basis of our judgments, decisions, and actions when performing professional activities or services. I urge all our members to adhere to MIA By-Laws and ethics codes, in order to safely navigate a business landscape that has become more complex, challenging, and uncertain.

<Sustainability agenda>

  • As sustainability risks rise to the top of the risk agenda, it is important to address the profession’s sustainability agenda holistically in order to ensure the future relevance of accountancy professionals and the Institute.
  • Hence, in December 2022, the MIA Council approved the Sustainability Agenda concept paper which outlines MIA’s strategy to advocate sustainability for the accountancy profession and to implement the ESG agenda systematically at the Institute level.
  • We also continued to advocate for digital transformation of the profession to enable business resilience and sustainability in the digital economy. Earlier this year, we launched the MIA Digital Technology Adoption Awards (DTAA) which recognises remarkable achievements in technology application by the accountancy profession in commerce and industry, public practice and public sector. We look forward to sharing of the inspirational success stories of the award winners that can be emulated by accountancy professionals everywhere.
  • We continued to carry out extensive engagement and strategic collaboration with stakeholders to advance our advocacy. As a member body of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), we worked closely with IFAC to drive the profession’s sustainability agenda and to advocate for Islamic finance to facilitate the achievement of UNSDGs and sustain Malaysia’s global leadership in Islamic finance. On a related note, I am pleased to announce that MIA recently launched its White Paper on Shariah Audit in collaboration with Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). This White Paper is a key initiative in MIA’s advocacy for shariah governance and Islamic finance. The white paper has gone through a vigorous review process by a Working Group that is represented by regulatory bodies including Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). If you are working in the related sectors, I highly recommend that you read this White Paper which can be accessed at MIA’s website.
  • MIA also collaborated closely with global professional accountancy organisations (PAOs) such as the ASEAN Federation of Accountants (AFA) on strengthening the regional profession in ASEAN and with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) on public sector financial governance, whereby we provided support to the Malaysian board member of the IPSASB.
  • Locally, we collaborated strategically with our fellow regulators such as BNM, the Companies Commission of Malaysia or SSM, Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri or LHDN, Bursa Malaysia, SC and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to strengthen regulation and enable good governance in strategic areas related to the profession, such as anti-money laundering and combating corporate fraud, tax transparency and paying the right tax. We also collaborated with the Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA) on the ISQM implementation for enhancing audit quality and practice management among public practitioners.

<Prospects>

  • Ladies and gentlemen, those were some of MIA’s highlights for FY2022/2023. For a more holistic picture of MIA’s performance and prospects, do check out our latest Integrated Annual Report 2023 which can be downloaded at the MIA website.
  • For FY2023/2024, MIA will continue to work to uphold our mandate of developing and regulating the profession.
  • In brief, we will continue to pursue the formalisation of the draft bill of the new Accountants Act, which will enable stronger regulation and enhanced governance.
  • To strengthen development and enable future fitness and future relevance of members and accountancy professionals, MIA will focus on improving our professional development programmes, including implementing CPE courses that leverage on emerging trends of Virtual, On-Demand, Hybrid and Physical programmes, events and conferences.
  • We will also continue to focus on digital transformation, advocacy for sustainability reporting, ethics and upskilling on compliance to the ISQM to deliver better audit quality in support of good governance.
  • Shortly, MIA CEO Dr. Wan Ahmad Rudirman will elaborate further on MIA’s performance for FY2022/2023 and prospects for the upcoming financial year.

Ladies and gentlemen,

  • MIA’s efforts to future proof the accountancy profession depend tremendously on the understanding, collaboration and contributions of our diverse stakeholders. I wish to thank everybody who contributed their time, expertise and efforts for the betterment of the profession in the past year.  On behalf of MIA, I would like to thank all outgoing Council members and to welcome all incoming Council members.
  • I would also like to express my thanks to all Council, Board, Committee and Task Force members as well as the MIA management team and staff for their service and contributions.
  • Last but not least, I wish to extend my deepest appreciation to all our members. Thank you very much for your ongoing support. The Institute will continue to strengthen our member services and engagement to support you better and enhance your future relevance.
  • On that note, I wish you a productive AGM.