Every year, International Accountants’ Day is celebrated on November 10 worldwide by the over three million professional accountants cast in the mold of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and also by those who have an operational interest in the services provided by accountants. The day has been set aside since 1972 when the first edition of the event was held to appreciate the importance of the contributions of accountants to the overall welfare of organizations. It is a day to look up to by accountants and would-be accountants with joy and for a legion of reasons.
The choice of November 10 for the celebration is significant. It was the day in 1494 that the mathematics book-“Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita”(meaning everything about Arithmetic, Geometry, and Proportion) authored by Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli- a monk, was published in Venice. The book had five sections, one of which resulted in the first accounting book which was the only book on the subject until late into the 16th century. Today, Luca Pacioli is regarded as the ‘father of accounting’ as his work became the foundation for more essays which led significantly to the development of accounting. But it is instructive to note that Lucas Pacioli did not actually invent the system of accounting but succinctly described, during the Italian Renaissance period, a method used by merchants in Venice.
Through his work, Luca Paciolilaid the foundation of what we know today as the “principle of double entry bookkeeping” which ensures that every debit entry has a corresponding credit entry. In fact, the principle of double entry is so crucial that he humorously admonished that accountants should not “sleep at night until the debits equaled the credits.” The principles of double entry accounting have remained fundamentally unchanged even though new standards have been developed and technology improved. His contribution to the development of accounting was quite profound and we owe him debts of gratitude.
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The accounting profession is a noble one and its role in the socio-economic and other activities of the world cannot be too strongly emphasized. Accounting is practiced in every organization, big or small, public or private, national or multinational. There is high demand for the services of accountants, the remuneration for established accountants is high, and the competition in the profession makes it imperative for accountants to continually upgrade their skills. The profession also provides an opportunity to develop special skills required to mine data and interpret the information. It could, therefore, be safely and reasonably said that accounting represents the ‘heart’ of every organization. However, in a number of occasions and circumstances, the accounting profession worldwide had been brokenhearted following the pains associated with the misalignments between the Letter and the Spirit of accounting practice initiated and executed by some boards, managers, and accountants who became morally and ethically disconnected with the ethos of the profession. This is rather unfortunate, especially when it is realized that transactions in the days before and after Luca Pacioli were accounted for “in the name of God.” That is, traders remembered God when they traded and recorded transactions. All of these changed in the nineteenth century when transactions came to be accounted for “in the name of God and profit.” As would be expected, the profit motive trumped the God factor in transactions and consequently, the Letter and the Spirit of accounting practice parted ways.
It is in light of the above that the practice of accounting worldwide has undergone and continues to undergo significant processes of change. From compliance with accounting rules and procedures based on social norms of corporate and professional behaviour, change processes continue to dominate the accounting space in terms of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). In-spite of these developments, it is past dispute that the Letter and the Spirit of accounting practice are not in perfect alignment. This has created an opportunity for most people who discuss matters relating to accounting practice to invoke sentiments in order to lend ‘credence’ to their own perceptions that accountants are necessarily dishonest- manipulate transactions and events and cannot be trusted. It is interesting to note that such persons are mere inquisitors who do not even have an operational interest in accounting practice and the output thereof and others too, to whom the knowledge and practice of accounting are a closed book. The lack of understanding of the role(s) accountants play in the accounting information chain has led the inquisitors, in their wisdom or lack of it, to erroneously ascribe role(s) that do not exist under extant laws to accountants.
In Nigeria, for instance, accountants operate in a societal system that is powerfully constraining and which can be exogenously made and unmade through human actions and interactions. This situation is even made worse especially that accounting as a discipline, is implicated and practiced in all areas of human endeavour. Accounting mediates in more than just economic exchange relationships and contractual agreements. Accounting also mediates in social, cultural and political relationships and arrangements. To a degree far above average, we have accountants worldwide who have the integrity of heart, skillfulness of hand and divine will and operative in all the spheres of accounting practice. To that extent. I submit that if lying has become a fine art, it is not the hallmark of the accounting profession. None-the-less, I encourage all who practice or enjoy the services of accountants to join hands in this mood of the celebration of the ‘accountants day’ to ensure that the Letter and the Spirit of accounting practice represent the alignment of the head, the heart and the will of God in meeting stakeholder needs. This is essential in order to continue to and be seen to justify the public interest mandate that is written and inscribed in the heart of every professional accountant worldwide.
Francis Iyoha
Professor Iyoha is of the Department of Accounting, Covenant University and Research Fellow, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He wrote viafoiyoha@ican.org.ng