11 February 2000
Dear
Elections to Council 2000
Thank you for your letter and enclosures of 7th February which I received
today. My
response to the points that you raise is as follows:
1. I do not understand your point about the contents of my election address. On previous occasions, I have noted that the address by many candidates exceeded 190 words. The address that I submitted was only 183 words. I have now further reduced it to 177 words (see enclosed). I am not willing to delete the website address.
2. If elected, I shall be delighted to provide the appropriate information
for the Register
of Council Members' Interests.
3. I am unwilling to accept the Code of Practice and if elected I shall
not support it. The
reasons are that:
(a) ACCA members were not invited to have any input in its formulation. If you can provide evidence to the contrary I shall gladly reconsider my decision.
(b) The Code (especially, item v and vi) violates my human rights. Council members are on public record as having said that the Code stifles public debate.
(c) Despite requests, ACCA has been unable to provide persuasive evidence to show that current council members (the architects of the Code) have complied with the Code.
Yours sincerely
Prem Sikka
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Prem Sikka, aged 48, has been a member since 1977. Prem is Professor of Accounting and a member of the Senate at the University of Essex. He has sought to strengthen the Association by encouraging it to be more open, democratic and accountable.
Prem believes that in common with other professional bodies, the Association should open its Council meetings and hold direct elections for its officeholders. He believes that the 'Proxy voting system' is not appropriate and would like to see an end to the censorship of the in-house magazine. At the time of writing (1 February 2000), members have still not been informed (see http://visar.csustanedu/aaba/aaba.htm) about the lawsuits in the UK and India, or the subsidisation of students in China. Members have not been told that they would pay some 28% of the cost of the new UK regulatory arrangements (which could be £5 million), or that unlike other professional bodies, the Association does not have an independent ombudsman to adjudicate disputes with its members.
Prem believes that 'independent voices' are essential for a strong Association.
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11 February 2000
Further to my earlier letter, I have now further revised my election
address (see enclosed) to let ACCA members know that I am not supporting
the Code of Practice. It is now 176 words long, below the 180 word
limit.
Yours sincerely
Prem Sikka
Prem Sikka, aged 48, has been a member since 1977. He is Professor
of Accounting at
the University of Essex.
Prem seeks to strengthen the Association by encouraging it to be more open, democratic and accountable. He believes that in common with other professional bodies, the Association should 'open' its Council meetings and hold direct elections for its officeholders. He believes that the 'proxy voting system' is not appropriate and would like to see an end to the censorship of the ACCA magazine. At the time of writing (11 February) members have still not been informed (see https://aabaglobal.org.uk/aaba.htm) about their 28% share of the cost of the new UK regulatory arrangements (which could be £5 million), the lawsuits in the UK and elsewhere, the subsidisation of students in China, or the absence of an independent ombudsman to adjudicate disputes with members.
Prem believes that Council's Code of Practice prevents council members from speaking on matters of public interest and is therefore unable to support it.
Prem believes that 'independent voices' are essential for a strong Association.