The Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) has kicked against the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) Amendment Bill recently presented to the House of Representatives Committee on Finance.
According to a statement issued by the Institute and signed by the President and Chairman of Council, Major General Abdullahi Muraina (Rtd), the ICAN Amendment bill “premised on its desire to regulate other professional bodies truly encroaches on statutory mandates of NIM by defining ‘Accountancy Practices’ to include ‘Management Consultancy Services’.
Speaking further, NIM President said that “the Nigerian Institute of Management Establishment Act No. 14, 2003, enacted as an Act of National Assembly on the 19th of June 2003 established the Institute as a body corporate under that name”. He stressed 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 skill from time to time as circumstances may permit; secure in accordance with the provisions of the Act the establishment and maintenance of register of members and publication from time to time of 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.
Major General Muraina (Rtd) reasoned 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 amendment bill since it is an aspect of the Management Profession, and, therefore, underscores it as an encroachment. Other aspects in the ICAN Bill that tamper with the NIM Act include ‘Corporate Service Practitioner’, ‘Governance Risk and Compliance Practitioner’, and ‘Financial Management Practitioner’.
Major General Muraina (Rtd) emphasized that it became necessary for the Nigerian Institute of Management to issue a statement on the issue and also send a strong written opposition to some aspects of ICAN Amendment Bill to the National Assembly in order to nip the proposed Bill in the bud before it scales various National Assembly readings.