All appears unwell between two professional bodies in Nigeria; the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). The cold war is a result of a proposed amendment bill presented by ICAN to the House of Representatives Committee on Finance recently.
The two bodies, which were established by the Acts of the National Assembly to cater for the professional needs of individuals and corporate bodies within the bounds of their mandates, are now at each other’s jugular, Rulers’ World can authoritatively report.
NIM, in a statement issued and signed by its President and Chairman of Council, Major General Abdullahi Muraina (Rtd), said that ICAN’s proposed amendment bill is “premised on its desire to regulate other professional bodies, hence encroaching on statutory mandates of NIM by defining ‘Accountancy Practices’ to include ‘Management Consultancy Services.
NIM President further submitted that the Nigerian Institute of Management Establishment Act No. 14, 2003, enacted as an Act of the National Assembly on the 19th of June 2003 established the institute as a corporate body under that name.
He explained that by the Act, the institute is charged among many other mandates to determine what standards of knowledge and skill are to be attained by persons seeking to become members of the management profession and raising those standards and skills from time to time as circumstances may permit.
He further explained that the Act also mandated the institute to secure, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, the establishment and maintenance of a register of members and publication from time to time of a list of those members; regulate and control the profession of management in all its aspects and ramifications, and perform through the Council under the Act the functions conferred on it by the Act.
He, therefore, argued that since the NIM establishment act empowers the Institute to “regulate and control the profession of management in all its aspects and ramification,” it nullifies the inclusion of “Management Consultancy Services” by ICAN in its proposed amendment bill since it is an aspect of the management profession, and, therefore, underscores it as an encroachment.
The NIM President also mentioned other aspects in the ICAN bill that tamper with the NIM Act including ‘Corporate Service Practitioner’, ‘Governance Risk and Compliance Practitioner’, and ‘Financial Management Practitioner.’
The President disclosed that it became necessary for the Nigerian Institute of Management to issue a statement on the issue to express the NIM opposition to some aspects of the ICAN Amendment Bill to the National Assembly to nip the noxious provisions in the proposed bill in the bud before it scales various National Assembly readings.
In a chat with Rulers’ World, Mr Niyi Akande, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Accountants of Nigeria explained that the issue was not contentious in any way.
He hinted that the Amendment being sought by the Institute became necessary because of the robust training that covers every area of management the ICAN members enjoy, as according to him, “the amendment being sought would allow members of ICAN to practice management consultancy without hindrances”.
He further submitted that NIM has the Act to regulate management but ICAN is not seeking regulation but an opportunity to practice management.
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