By Vivienne Russell | 13 November 2013

CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman has urged accountant colleagues across the globe to ‘take responsibility’ to collectively tackle the shortcomings in governmental public financial management and governance.

Addressing the assembled leaders of professional accountancy bodies at the International Federation of Accountants’ annual council meeting in Seoul, South Korea, Whiteman said the profession could not stand by and allow the 'malaise' in governmental financial management to continue.

CIPFA and fellow accountancy institutes were well placed to speak out in the public interest, provide clarity about what actions that needed to be taken and warn on the consequences if things are left as they are.

‘We need to exert pressure, nationally and internationally, to encourage governments to prioritise reforms and to implement them urgently,’ he said.

However, he went on to acknowledge that the accountancy profession itself faced major challenges. Professional accountancy organisations needed to organise themselves in a co-ordinated and efficient way.

‘Each professional accountancy organisation around the world doing its best in its own local jurisdiction is not enough,’ Whiteman said.

‘It will lead to a fragmented patchwork of under-powered efforts that will simply fail to do the job.’

Whiteman is working with Ian Ball, CIPFA’s international chair and former Ifac chief executive, to explore how the institute can work with other professional accountancy organisations.

CIPFA’s aspirations and an invitation to build collaboration with fellow institutions are set out in Public financial management: taking responsibility.