The Sunday Mail
THE Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICPAZ), which was established to facilitate the prudential management of public accounts, will this year mark its 31st anniversary.
Formerly the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (ZIPFA), the institution was formed in 1984 as part of the City of Harare’s treasury department.
It was designed mainly to tame financial indiscipline in local authorities and state entities.
It rebranded to ICPAZ in 2007.
ICPAZ first black president and Harare’s first black city treasurer Mr Edmore Ndudzo said at the inception of the body, there were other recognised professional accounting bodies in the country such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administration in Zimbabwe (ICSAZ).
However, there wasn’t any local professional accounting body that specialised in financial management and accounting for the public sector.
It is believed that ICPAZ has played a crucial role in improving accountability and transparency in the management of public funds especially at local government level.
According to Mr Ndudzo, the accounting body has trained and moulded black professionals that filled the gap left open by white former professionals who left the country after Independence in 1980.
For example, middle and top management at the Harare City Council resigned after Independence and only Mr Galletly, who was the city treasurer, remained, creating a serious crisis.
ICPAZ, however, managed to recruit three experienced public accountants from the United Kingdom to help with skills transfer at the council.
Other professionals were also outsourced by the University of Zimbabwe to teach a new course on public financial accounting.
ICPAZ later established a subsidiary body called the Zimbabwe Association of Accounting Technicians (ZAAT), a less demanding institution, to produce accountants in bigger numbers.
Today, ICPAZ has grown to be part of an international community, with its members present in over 40 countries around the world.
Among the notable achievements by the institute is that they made the earliest proposal to Government for adoption of road toll gates, a measure which was later adopted by the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara).
The institute was also responsible for drafting and compiling the Public Finance Management Act, which was promulgated in 2010.
The Act calls for local authorities and public enterprises to be more transparent in financial management and accounting. Of late, public authorities and parastatals have been under fire for financial indiscipline, poor service delivery and unaccountability.
