ICMA Sri Lanka branch hosts 2018 graduation ceremony
The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) Australia recently qualified more than 160 Certified Management Accountants (Australia) at its Graduation and Membership Awarding Ceremony, held on November 15, at Grand Ballroom, Hotel Galadari, in Colombo.
This was the fourth such ceremony organised by the ICMA Sri Lanka branch.
Witnessed by an audience of over 400, which included Sri Lanka’s top business leaders and corporate executives, as well as friends, family and colleagues of the graduates, this year’s ceremony featured the guest of honour, Australian High Commission Development Cooperation First Secretary Krishni Goonesena. The chair of the event was ICMA Australia Chief Executive Officer Prof. Janek Ratnatunga.
ICMA Australia Sri Lanka branch Chairman Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, ICMA Australia Sri Lanka, ICMA Australia Sri Lanka branch President Murali Prakash and ICMA Australia Regional Director Kapila Dodamgoda also graced the occasion.
Prakash was also felicitated for the relentless service he has rendered to ICMA (Australia) as the honorary President during the past eight years. Prakash, a respected corporate leader, was instrumental in forming the first ICMA Sri Lanka branch council and gave leadership to a team of emerging leaders in creating a mark for ICMA Australia in Sri Lanka.
Six ICMA members, who have contributed towards the progression of ICMA as council members, were recognised as grand champions of ICMA Australia. They were Romero Linden, Dr. Chandrani Adikaram, Ruwan Rajapakse, Eardley Lloyd Kern, Niranjan Sumedha Fernando and Samudra Amunugama.
Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, the ICMA was incorporated in 1996 under the patronage of William Dix (former Chairman of Ford and Qantas) and Prof. John Miller (former Director of Consumer Affairs, Chairman of Pannell).
It is registered under the Associations Incorporations Act 1981 (Vic.) with members entitled under its Rules to use the post-nominals ‘Certified Management Accountant (CMA)’, ‘Associate Management Accountant (AMA)’, ‘Graduate Management Accountant (GMA)’ and ‘Management Accounting Affiliate (MAA)’ as membership categories.
The objectives of the ICMA are to provide a professional organisation for management accountants and to encourage, disseminate and promote the specialisation in organisations in Australia. Similar specialist bodies had operating in English-speaking developed countries such as the USA, UK and Canada before then. But, until that time, there was no such body in Australia.
Qualifications for ICMA require the completion of 16 subjects structured under four stages and a final, full-time workshop that is one week in duration. This final workshop has been conducted under the auspices of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka since 1999.
It is noteworthy that ICMA students are typically highly academically and professionally qualified individuals holding very senior positions at reputed entities.
Each year, more than 150 qualified Sri Lankans with fully completed accountancy and/or other professional qualifications, university degrees, Masters of Business Administration degrees and Masters in Finance degrees enter the ICMA programme.