In response to a question at the AGM on 9 May 2002, ACCA’s finance director Ross Midgley confirmed that Anthea Rose is (or has been) a director of A.T. Foulks Lynch, an organisation with business links with ACCA. Midgley said that Rose held the position of a non executive director and that she did not receive any remuneration for it. He did not say anything about any other benefits.

Midgley said that Rose became a director at the time (1995) the ACCA had entered into a publishing agreement with A.T. Foulks Lynch and that this was known to ACCA council. The ACCA has not published any evidence to support this. At the AGM it was evident that all council members were not aware of Rose’s business links. To date, all ACCA accounts have been silent on this.

The annual return (form 363a) filed by A. T. Foulks Lynch with Companies House on 1 October 2001 states that Rose is a director of the company. The company’s 2001 accounts (year end 31 August 2001) published on 30 January 2002 say that Rose resigned on 24 March 2001. Both documents can’t be right. For a number of years, former ACCA council member J.G. Carr was also a director of A.T. Foulks Lynch.

ACCA has not made Rose’s directorships public. With a salary of £192,000 and a guaranteed pension (in real terms) of £125,000 per annum Anthea Rose is the highest paid chief executive of any UK accountancy body. The job is supposed to be full-time. How many directorships does she hold outside the ACCA?

ACCA members should ponder the following questions.
 

• What proportion of her time is spent working for ACCA and/or other companies?
• Why did the leadership not come clean and publish a list of directorships held by ACCA senior management?
• What benefit have the ACCA members received from this directorship?
• What is the value and the nature of transactions between ACCA and A.T. Foulks Lynch?
• A.T. Foulks Lynch made disclosures about Rose’s directorship, why did the Association not do the same?
• Why does the ACCA not keep and publish a Register of Council Members’ Interests?
• ACCA council members are asked to complete an annual questionnaire about their business interests. Why does the same not apply to senior members of management?
• What was the last time that ACCA council members were told about the senior management’s business interests? Most appear to have become aware of the issues through AABA revelations.