We all know that Chris Sivewright is a live wire but I'd like to share
a view with everyone that I think provides clear guidance on what we
might expect from our examination boards.

Firstly, you need to read Chris's post on the web site that Simon
pointed us at: essentially, it outlines a scenario that screams
conflict of interest and goodness knows what else! I have accepted as
fact everything that Chris has said even though he presents it as sort
of fictitious (there are links, though, that suggest otherwise!); so
what follows is a reflection of the posting on an as is basis.

I am currently working on accounting education and training out here in
Central Asia and although my work centres around curriculum
development, materials development and training, I'd like to tell you
the process we have just gone through vis a vis our testing and
certification work.

Our testing and certification work is being spearheaded by a man, Liam,
who was a very senior manager (marketing development) in the
Association of Certified Chartered Aaccountants (ACCA) (UK) and was CEO
of ACCA Ireland: he is a double qualified accountant (FCCA, ACMA) and
has a bachelor's degree (B Com) from an Irish university. He has worked
in the UK, Ireland, in many developing countries and whilst he was the
marketing development manager of the ACCA (UK) he travelled the world
advising accountants and accounting bodies on all aspects of their
work. These are his credentials and this is

his approach to the problem that Chris has raised
the international accounting community's response to Liam's work

Liam's rule 1: divorce testing and certification from all other
administrative activities
Liam's rule 2: divorce testing and certification from all teaching and
training activities
Liam's rule 3: divorce testing and certification from all materials
development activities
Liam's rule 4: employ only the most secure systems possible

and so it goes on. We know that in this part of the world, the divorce
of testing and certification from all other activities is a vital
aspect of our work: until Liam and I arrived earlier this year there
was conflict and confusion of interests surrounding all aspects of
everyone's work and, surprise, surprise, we identified myriad problems
when we dug down into those conflicts and confusions.

Even if people are not corrupt but their systems are badly constructed
and implemented, accidents happen and temptation is often too strong to
resist.

At a conference this week, and subsequent administrative follow up
work, the following organisations endorsed our curriculum, training,
testing and certification work

the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (the world's
largest accounting body)
the International Accounting Standards Board (the world's premier
accounting standard setting body)
the Scottish Institute of Chartered Accountants (the world's first
accounting body and operator or Europe's largest business/accounting
training network)
the Institute of Management Accountants of the USA
the International Federation of Accountants (a federation of accounting
bodies from 156 countries and a major player in the world of accounting)

It should be clear that with only a few exceptions, we are working with
the world's most important accounting organisations (forgive me if I
ask you not to think about Enron, WorldCom and Xerox for a moment!)

The AICPA audited our curriculum and teaching and endorsed it; and they
audited our testing and certification work and endorsed it as being of
good quality, well managed and operated ... their key concerns surround
content and style of the exams, of course; the marking schemes and the
marking systems, of course; the security systems and procedures; and
the removal of all possible linkages from testing and certification to
all other aspects of our work. These latter two points are at the
forefront of the values that the AICPA concerns itself with and we
passed this aspect of their audit too.

The IASB raised the same issues concerning standards of the tests and
the standards of the systems I have already mentioned ... so did all of
the other senior accountants at the conference.

In terms of Chris Sivewright's concerns, Mr A would ABSOLUTELY NOT be
able to carry out in tandem many of the activities listed in Chris's
message: there are far too many conflicts of interest and potential
minefields in that list.

Let me stress that I do not know Mr A, I have no personal axe to grind
in respect of any examinations board and the above is given purely to
reflect the ways that professional accounting organisations try to
ensure that their training, testing and certification work conforms to
the highest possible standards. We deserve the highest possible
standards for our GCSE and A level standards too, don't we.


Duncan Williamson

PS As a matter of interest, if anyone is interested in the construction
of tests and so on, the AICPA is in the middle of a massive project to
transfer their testing regime from paper based (time constrained
exam ...) to computer based. A poor telephone link at the moment has
kept me away from their web site (www.aicpa.org) this week but you
might find some interesting things there.



----- Original Message -----
From: Simon Budgen
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2002 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: Proposed changes to AS Business papers 1&2 ( AQA)


An interesting if not controversial post to the TES Business Studies
message board by Mr Chris Siveweright!

Follow the link:

http://www.tes.co.uk/staffroom/thread.asp?
id=18108&threadID=26056&threadPage=1

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Simon Budgen

[log in to unmask]

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