Prime Minister Perry Christie yesterday told members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) that the government would step in to regulate the industry if self-regulation failed, but promised his administration would support the profession’s own supervisory efforts with legislation if it was required.
Mr. Christie said it was essential to ensure proper regulation of the accounting industry, particularly following the collapse of several major US corporations, such as Enron and WorldCom, amid allegations of financial fraud.
He put BICA on notice that, as in the US, which introduced the Sarbanes-Oxley Act earlier this year to tighten regulation of the capital markets and created a body to oversee the auditing profession, if the Bahamian industry failed to regulate itself the government would step in.
However, Mr. Christie promised BICA that if it needed the support of further legislation in its regulatory efforts, his government would assist them in constructing the regulatory framework.
Speaking at BICA’s Continuing Professional Education seminar, Mr. Christie criticised the public sector for becoming “even, more unwieldy and even more unresponsive” to the modern dictates of an efficient economy, and he said there was a compelling urgency for public reform.
Source: Yolanda Deleveaux, The Tribune
