At a glance
- The IPA’s disciplinary function enforces high ethical and professional standards for its members.
- This process is crucial for maintaining public trust in the accounting profession.
- Self-regulation makes the IPA’s enforcement role vital for the profession’s quality control.
* The author, Luke Atkinson, is the IPA’s compliance administrator.
Every day, members of the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) work tirelessly to provide crucial accounting and financial services to the public. These people form the backbone of their community’s prosperity, and thus it is crucial that they are performing to the best of their abilities.
With such great responsibility, it is important that the public know they are in safe, professional and reliable hands when approaching IPA members. At the IPA, we are dedicated to safeguarding that trust, and underpinning this commitment is the complaints and disciplinary function.
Members of the IPA are required to hold themselves to the highest ethical and professional standards, so as not to bring the IPA or the profession into disrepute. The complaints and disciplinary function acts as the enforcer of these standards, ensuring compliance is maintained by every IPA member and that those found to be in breach are swiftly identified, investigated and sanctioned appropriately. After all, there is no point in having a code of ethical and professional standards without a way to enforce it.
How it works
The IPA’s complaints and disciplinary function has a set procedure for handling suspected breaches. These can be found in detail on the Complaints About an IPA Member page on the IPA’s official website, but a brief overview will be provided here:
1. First, the compliance team receives a complaint about a member, typically from a former client of the member but also often from regulatory bodies (such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission or the Tax Practitioners Board), concerned members of the public and the IPA itself. The IPA then determines whether it has jurisdictional authority, and if so, the matter then proceeds through the disciplinary process.
2. An investigator assesses all the available evidence and prepares a written report of the case. Assuming a case to answer has been found, the process will move on to one of three outcomes: (1) administrative action, (2) voluntary resolution or (3) referral to a Disciplinary Tribunal.
3. If outcomes 1 or 2 are determined, the matter is resolved upon completion/acceptance of conditions/terms.
4. If outcome 3 is determined, a tribunal will be convened to hear the case, deliberate on the evidence and any defence the member may pose, and finally make a determination and issue any penalties.
Keeping all this running smoothly is the complaints and disciplinary chapter of the IPA, committed to preserving the professional and ethical standards of the accounting profession.
Why is it important?
Unlike other professions, accountants are not subject to a unified statutory standard in Australia. Rather, the accounting profession is self-regulated by professional associations, such as the IPA, which work semi-independently to maintain the high standards the public has come to expect of the industry.
Even with members who hold a statutory registration and who may have been disciplined by a regulator or other professional association, the IPA would still undertake its own investigation.
Accordingly, it falls to the IPA to not only co-regulate ethical and professional standards but also to enforce them.
This is why the complaints and disciplinary function is so crucial. Without it, professional standards would be no more than loose guidelines, and the profession would suffer a crisis of quality control, the reverberations of which would be felt across every sector.
At the IPA, we are dedicated to safeguarding the public trust – the very backbone of the accounting profession – that our members have worked so hard to build. And underpinning this dedication is the complaints and disciplinary chapter, working to keep the profession a compliant one.
After all, a profession that upholds its own standards is a better profession for everyone.
Learn more about how the IPA is advocating for the profession here.
