Did you know that:
 

• ACCA President, Deputy President and Vice-President are not directly elected to their office by ACCA members. It is all based upon the principle of the Buggins Turn.

• ACCA does not allow proper discussion of anything at AGMs. The outgoing  President insists that each member can only speak for 2-3 minutes even though s/he takes 35 minutes. There is no bylaw limiting the members' rights, but the leadership does not care.

• ACCA officialdom claims that ACCA Council elects the leaders, but it has failed to give anyone any sight of the alleged ballot paper.

• The leadership opposes the election of the leadership by members. It insists that individuals seeking high office must do an apprenticeship i.e. firstly they must become a Vice-President, the Deputy-President and then President. However, when they want their own cronies, all these concocted rules are consigned to dust-bin. In 1999, Moyra Kedslie was appointed Deputy-President without ever being appointed Vice-President. This after only three years on Council, hardly enough for 'experience'. In 1999, John Brockwell was 'appointed' President without even serving as a Deputy-President. Funny, how the leadership does not follow its own rules.

• ACCA uses a voting system known as 'delegated proxy' system which unlawful for trade unions. The system ensures that the leadership can always 'appoint' its Council.

• ACCA leadership routinely ignores the 'proxy voting form' approved by the members and reproduced in the official handbook. It instead pre-prints President's name and abuses the voting system.

• ACCA Council elections are rigged. ACCA President casts some 20-25% of all votes. The Council is "appointed" and hardly in a position to raise uncomfortable questions..

• ACCA leadership defends its voting system by saying that members do not always know who to vote for. This is a lame excuse. All that the Council candidates need to do is to publish more information about their policies. People vote in national and elections on the basis of policies.

• ACCA's overseas members do not trust the leadership. so they insisted that the 'delegated proxy system' not be used for election to International Assembly. Here a system of proportional voting is used.

• ACCA's self elected leaders takes their friends, spouses and even mistresses to all expenses paid overseas jaunts. The cost of this is some £50,000 per annum and is borne by the Association's ordinary members. ACCA members are not told anything about this and their approval for this 'nice little earner' is never sought.

• ACCA subscription increases are running ate 2-3 times the rate of inflation. What do members get in return? Precious little whilst the Chief Executive takes her spouse on overseas jaunts. The officeholders spend £50,000 taking their spouses around the world and charge the cost to members.

• ACCA leadership has failed to provide a decent library for its members. The ACCA technical staff use the ICAEW library. Overseas members do not even get a rudimentary library.

• Following FRS8, ACCA should disclose the details of the spouse and friend jaunts, but the leadership has ignored compliance with FRS8. Yet the accounts are still described as 'True and fair'.

• ACCA is the only major professional accountancy body which does not admit either its members or the public to its Council meetings.

• ACCA claims to be an international body, but prior to the 1995 EGM organized by Prem Sikka, no one from any overseas jurisdiction was ever allowed to sit on the Council. What use did the Presidents make of their 20-25% block votes?

• No person of 'color' has ever been nominated to be an officeholder of the ACCA. Why not?

• Unlike other professional associations, the ACCA leadership has failed to publish composition of the membership by gender, ethnicity, or by geographical area. What is the leadership hiding?

• Minutes and agenda papers of ACCA Council meetings are not available to members. So they have no idea of the policies being pursued.

• ACCA Council members are nicknamed 'DUMMIES'. They attend AGMs and always support the leadership. They have no mind of their own, no policies and never ever speak at the AGMs.

• The most powerful person in the ACCA is its Chief Executive, who is neither an ACCA member nor elected by members.

• ACCA members have never been asked to approve the Chief Executive's contract. Members are not allowed to vote and approve (or disapprove) the Chief Executive's salary either.

• ACCA is the only UK professional body which has been forced by the commission for Racial Equality (CRE) to undertake ethnic monitoring of all its disciplinary cases.

• There are no published procedures for lodging a complaint against the Chief Executive and other officers.

• Unlike other professional bodies there is no Ombudsman to resolve any conflicts between ACCA officialdom and its members. The officialdom insists that its interpretation of bylaws is the only one and members can do nothing about it.