ACCA is ineffective in the UK. Its leadership seems to be more concerned with photo opportunities with Ministers rather than any substantial policy issues. Thus ACCA has failed in its campaign to retain audit of small companies.

An analysis of the ACCA income shows that a large proportion of its income is from outside the UK.

                            Fees and                   Other
                            Subscriptions            Income
                                 £000s                   £000s

UK                          7,415  (43%)         7,060  ( 41%)
Outside the UK       9,964  (57%)       10,163  ( 59%)
Total                    17,379  (100%)      17,223 (100%)
 

Overall, the UK membership forms 50% of the total membership but generates only 42% of the total income. 58% of the total income from outside the UK. The non-UK membership receives precious little for its fees. It is treated a second-class and  does not have 58% of the seats on the ACCA Council. Non-UK members, often from poor developing countries, are subsidising the ACCA’s UK regulatory operations. Never has there been such a case of poor subsidising the rich. The ACCA continues with its colonial model, under which control is centralised in London and the President like some colonial Viceroy visits the natives.

The UK members do not get much a deal either. They get a poor magazine. Unlike other accountancy bodies, ACCA does not provide a library for its members.

ACCA is interested in easy income. Members living in Malaysia, China, Singapore, the Caribbean and Africa will never be able to develop local social infrastructure until they throw away the shackles of ACCA’s colonialism and take pride in developing their own local institutions to deal with their local problems. Their forefathers fought the struggles for independence, but ACCA members from the same countries are now perpetuating the colonial rule from London.