The only way is ethics says accountancy institute chief
Anton Colella insists that boards of all firms should contain a CA
ANTON Colella never quite fulfilled his ambition to be a headteacher. But the Glaswegian religious studies teacher’s appointment as a deputy head in Castlemilk in 1999 sparked a rocket-like career trajectory that has turned the 53-yearold into the £353,000 a year chief executive of Scotland’s accountancy institute ICAS and head of a global alliance of 1.2million accountants.
At a time when financial sector ethics have remained in sharp focus, ICAS has been celebrating its 160th anniversary as the world’s oldest institute and Mr Colella used the occasion to warn that “the ethical behaviour of the many is being overshadowed by the unethical behaviour of the few”, adding: “Despite the valiant efforts of the last couple of years, large swathes of the public still believe that we have only paid lip service to delivering the cultural changes which are required.”
ICAS last year produced some of the only objective research on the referendum issues, warning in particular of dangers surrounding pensions, while one of its alumni Lord Smith was the man chosen to broker the new devolution deal. Mr Colella observes: “Robert (Smith) has unquestionable integrity and will not be manipulated ... he is an ambassador for the institute.”
He goes on: “Our charter given to us by Queen Victoria does implicitly give us a mandate to act in the public interest. We are growing in confidence to speak in the public interest...we do believe more powers should be devolved to Scotland, but we need to look at the whole UK implications and to ask whether the benefit gained is greater than the cost of implementing.”
Mr Colella adds: “We also look forward to the day when Scotland has the equivalent of the Treasury Select Committee ... we need that level of scrutiny and accountability in Scotland alongside devolved powers.”
But in 2011 it was the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs which accused bank auditors of a dereliction of duty in the banking crash, while in 2013 the Public Accounts Committee lambasted the “big four” firms for selling tax avoidance schemes which had only a 25 to 50 per cent chance of being legal. It has also been noted that those firms’ former partners sit on the board of HMRC while its staff sit on HMRC committees writing tax laws.
Mr Colella responds that CAs are “not the sole guardian of the truth, not the sole conscience of the boardroom”, while the giant firms have become global to service global clients and corporate governance systems protect against conflicts of interest.
He believes the next generation of Scottish accountants, scattered around the world but prominent in the UK, can be trained by their alma mater to become role models not only in business but in civic society.
“I have been on a mission to help not just ICAS but other professions to rediscover their professional identity,” Mr Colella says. The 3000 students currently in training across the UK will be left in no doubt that what matters most is the oath they take of “queri verum” – seek the truth – Mr Colella avows.
“We have members in 106 countries, 26 per cent of them are in practice, the vast majority are in business and the designation CA goes with them and transcends their employment at any given time, it signifies a set of values built around the seeking of the truth. The challenge is that many young people don’t see it like that.”
The defender of the professional faith was brought up one of four children in a one-parent family in Shettleston and says he was “a bit of an under-achiever” but did well enough to get into Stirling University. “My ambition was to be an accountant, but I chose to become a teacher of RE and (then) my ambition in life was to be a headmaster.”
These days he tends to be asked where he did his MBA. “I often reply ‘have you ever taught in Castlemilk?’ You learn a lot about life, persuading people to do things they don’t want to do, fulfilling their potential.” Plucked 2003: Appointed chief executive of SQA 2006: Joined accounting body ICAS as chief executive 2011: Elected chair of Global Accounting Alliance from St Margaret Mary’s secondary school by the SQA at the height of its exam crisis in 2001, the emergency secondee was appointed chief executive in 2003 on a £90,000 salary.
When ICAS recruited him to its £140,000 a year post three years later, it cited Mr Colella’s “strong track record in business and education, delivering growth in income at the SQA, developing the profile of the organisation with the media and politicians and achieving the highest levels of staff and customer satisfaction since the body was formed”.
He says: “I realised I had some skills that could be used in a variety of different contexts, I discovered my ability to make things work that weren’t working.”
When he joined ICAS, Mr Colella saw a potentially undervalued brand. “Not being a CA I was able to look objectively ... I realised most of Scotland was unaware that the impact Scottish CAs have had on the global capital markets over the last 100 years has been very significant. We punch way above our weight, most of the FTSE-100 will have a member of the Scottish institute in a leadership position.”
Under its dynamic new leader the SQA had set up an office in China which had grown rapidly to handle thousands of full-time higher education students. At ICAS, international growth has driven a rise in membership from under 15,000 to over 20,000 over the past decade.
“Scotland has been ICAS’s heritage and history over 160 years, its future is as a global organisation and in my view it is one of Scotland’ s best exports,” Mr Colella says. “We have 5000 members working in the southeast of England alone, many of them in the City of London.”
Then came the crash. “I remember Lord Myners saying at the heart of the financial crisis that every board should have a CA on it,” Mr Colella says.
“The force of greed and the force of profit clouds judgement, we need for the future more and more voices of caution.”
In 2009 the institute sharpened its focus on ethical issues with a guide for CAs on responding to ethical dilemmas.
“The only thing you can fully prepare them for is the courage to be able to say no or to say this is not right.
“We have seen failure in the past where that has not happened...our job is to prepare the next generation and this is where you need to rediscover the benefit of being a member of a professional organisation.”
Mr Colella goes on: “All crises or scandals will have originated in one person or a collective of individuals.
“What we want to do is ensure individuals behave well – I am not being naive or simplistic but that is where it starts.”
Holyrood, he says, should have its share of CAs in the ranks of MSPs.
“Our job is to prepare them to take on leadership roles not just in business and economic leadership but civic leadership as well. I really believe society needs a strong profession, not just in the service provided to clients but the contribution to society.”
Now a CBI Scotland council member, he insists: “Scotland needs to become a more enterprising nation, and it is our members who should be Scotland’s trusted advisers in business.”