ACCA Leadership Scrapes Home on Subscription Increases


ACCA leadership has got used to picking members' pockets. Members get nothing in return. The official magazine must be the worst magazine around. Most of the money is squandered on fat cat salaries for executives and lavish parties, bonding sessions, building empires and global travel. When was the last time you had any service or support from ACCA?

Membership is asked to fund all this by routinely coughing up an annual increase. Companies raising new finance have to provide a plan indicating how the money is to be used and how members would benefit. Members can set performance targets and question directors. But the Association does not do this. It just picks members' pockets who are seen as an easy source of money.

For 2005, ACCA proposed an increase of £5 or 3%, which is above the UK inflation rate. For many non-UK members, this amounts to a large chunk of their salary. But the leadership does not care. Members are seen to have deep-pockets.

However, this year they nearly failed. The vote for the subscription increase was as follows:

For                 3,478

Against          1725

For subscription increase to be effective, a 2/3rd majority of votes is needed and that means that leadership barely scraped in by  less than 30 votes. That was only possible after the office-holders cast hundreds of delegated proxy votes. They also persuaded grandees from Hong Kong (which provided the 2003-2004 president) to cast their proxy votes to support the increase.

ACCA  bye-law 2(d)(iv) states that  " the regulations prescribing or providing for the paying of admission fees and annual subscriptions shall be subject to the approval of the Association in general meeting by resolution passed by not less than two thirds of the members entitled to vote and voting on such resolution".

Insiders have told AABA that ACCA fat cats are not pleased. They are already considering two options:

1.  A change to the bye-laws so that only a simple majority vote would be needed to fix subscription increases. However, some fat cats are unhappy with this as this will still give members an opportunity to protest about lack of efficiency and value for money.

2. Find a way of hoisting subscription increases without member approval. This seems to be favoured by senior grandees who are relying on member apathy and their ability to cast thousands of 'delegated' votes to push it through.
AABA urges members to vote against any subscription increase. Without proper accountability, more money should not be given to wasteful executives. Neither should they be allowed to hoist increases without prior approval.