The Role of Accountants in Economic Development - Sudheer Sesungkur: “Accountants can help eradicate corruption”

Sudheer Sesungkur, Minister of Financial Services, Good Governance and Institutional Reforms, has made a plea to the younger generation of accountants to endeavour to serve public interest. He was on Thursday addressing the Forum of Accountants held at Hilton Hotel and having as theme “The Role of Accountants in Economic Development”.

Minister Sesungkur believes that the profession of accountant can make a tangible contribution towards ensuring that public sector departments and entities are appropriately equipped to deal with challenges.  “There is much to be done by accountants to eradicate corruption, to design monitoring and early warning systems, to institute controls that would help curb wasteful expenditure, and design reports so that the political establishment, Government officials, and other stakeholders have access to accurate and timely information. Only then can we meaningfully contribute to improved decision-making, policy orientation for successful economic development”, he says.

According to him, sound economic development rests on Quality Information, Credibility and Trust.  “Trust can only be achieved if the accounts are based on quality information, that they have been duly audited, vouched for accuracy and espoused the principles of good governance.  Information in today’s world means Power.  Interpreting business activities, their inputs and outcomes into different dimensions and over different time horizons will contribute towards sustainable development and financial stability” he explains.

The quality of information, he indicates, is crucially important for the survival of enterprises and this eventually permeates to the market and the economy as a whole. “It is not surprising that the accounting profession is being constantly challenged to meet the demands for quality information.  The reasoning is simple. The higher the quality and integrity maintained by the profession, the stronger and more resilient will the economy be. The accounting profession therefore plays an important complementary role towards building a credible, reputable and internationally competitive economy”, he points out.

The importance of integrity of auditing functions for maintaining financial stability is now well-recognised. “By providing credible financial statements, we Accountants facilitate market discipline, we provide confidence to stakeholders and we help minimize the risk of false and misleading information which can seriously affect the stability of financial systems”.