Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana - Activities

Activities

The institute is engaged in training and regulation of professional accountants in Guyana. ICAG is a joint examination scheme partner of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). ICAG and ACCA jointly run a practice-monitoring programme, and by the end of 2010 all members had been visited once. ICAG is a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). The institute is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC). On 25–27 June 2009, ICAG hosted the ICAC 27th Annual Conference of Accountants at the Guyana International Conference Centre.

Harryram Parmessar of the ICAG was appointed president of ICAC for a 2009–2011 term. Speaking in a newspaper interview in August 2009, Parmessar noted the great difficulty of retaining qualified accountants within the country. He said that 25 accountants were trained by the institute each year, but half of them migrated to North America or elsewhere. In a partial effort to address the problem, the government of Guyana now allows any ACCA-qualified Caricom national to practise accountancy in the country, where before only citizens could practise. He noted that discussions on uniform Caribbean company law and Caribbean tax law had never got far, but should be pursued to help make accountants more mobile.