Accountants must accept share of blame for crisis says ACCA president

Accountants and non-execs should accept their share of the blame for the current financial crisis in the markets, according to ACCA president Richard Aitken-Davies.

In an article for the Guardian, Aitken-Davies wrote that ‘perhaps we accountants haven't said no enough’ when confronted by short-termist accounting and questionable risk management at some of the major financial institutions.

He also singled out independent non executive directors for criticism.

‘If directors ignored bad habits, if they accepted complacency after a prolonged bull market then they should be held accountable. If they have overseen failure, and allowed greed to flourish then they are accountable for this, too,’ he wrote.

Aitken Davies called for a rethink on corporate governance as something had gone ‘seriously wrong’ with it and for remuneration and incentivisation packages to be redrawn. He also insisted that it was important to hold those responsible to account in court.

Further reading:

Read Richard Aitken-Davies’s Guardian article

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