CMA Sri Lanka qualified Management Accountants deprived of applying for Government jobs Contravening Approval granted in Cabinet Decision of September 2014
Recently there were two gazette notifications one for the Recruitment to Grade III Sri Lanka Accountants Service as per Gazette Notification of 5th May 2018 published by the Secretary Ministry of Public Administration and Gazette notification 2071 published on 11th May 2018 the Auditor General has called applications to sit for Open Competitive Examination for Recruitment of Audit Examiners to Grade II of the Audit Examiner Service – 2018.
Surprisingly the professional qualifications recognized for application included for the recruitment to Grade 111 of Sri Lanka Accountants Service included foreign, Commonwealth Country and UK qualifications as given below:
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Commonwealth Country Chartered Accountancy qualification, Commonwealth Country Chartered Management Accounting qualification and Certified Chartered Accountants of UK qualification.
Both these Government institutions have left out Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka ( CMA Sri Lanka) Qualification despite the cabinet decision of 4th September 2014 depriving over 1000 who have qualified at the Final and Intermediate/ Operational level mainly from the outstations and rural areas. The students have stated that they have been discrimi- nated despite the cabinet approval to recognize the CMA qualification.
The Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka is the National Professional Management Accounting Body in Sri Lanka incorporated by Parliament Act No 23 of 2009 coming under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Thereafter the official recognition for inclusion in the schemes of recruitment in government undertakings, state corporations, state owned companies and banks was granted by Cabinet of Ministers approval on 4th September 2014.
The Secretary to the Treasury issued a circular on 21st August 2017 to all Secretaries of Ministries to comply with the Cabinet decision of 4th September 2014 and to include the qualification in the schemes of recruitment for accounting and finance related vacancies in institutions coming under them in line with the other local and foreign professional qualifications.
As per the Cabinet Approval (no (ii)) of 4th September 2014, Sri Lanka Accountants’ Service, Sri Lanka Audit Service & Sri Lanka Audit Examiner Service had been given the approval to recognisethe CMA Sri Lanka qualifications equivalent to the qualification of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and other foreign qualifications.
But this Cabinet Approval has not been implemented by the Ministry of Public administration and Auditor General’s department as per the recently published gazette notifications. This has deprived over 1000 CMA members & those who are fully or partly qualified to apply for such vacancies. Hence it is imperative to implement the cabinet decision of 2014 and not to deprive locally qualified management accountants to serve their mother country whereas foreign and Commonwealth Country accounting qualifications are given recognition. This is despite the fact that the Secretary to the Treasury has implemented the Cabinet decision although done three years later. Continued on page 7