The importance of financial statements, annual accounts and other financial information is of great importance to both accounting service users and other entities in the community, the state, banks and investors. In this regard, the Chamber of Accountants believes that it is necessary to raise the quality of their preparation, to further reduce unfair competition and the gray economy in the sector, as well as to strengthen the interest of young people to study the accounting profession, was emphasized at today’s press conference. Macedonian Chambers of Commerce.
The President of the Chamber of Accountants, Dragan Mitkovski, said that it is necessary to provide exclusively the right of signature only to a person registered as an authorized accountant, which in addition to the accountants will have appropriate rights deriving from their qualifications.
“Accounting should be raised to a much higher level and the work of accountants who, with proper legal implementation, responds to the needs and requirements of their clients, and on the other hand, responds to the needs of institutions, more precisely to society as a whole. . In this regard, all Laws should be adopted after prior consultation and in cooperation with relevant stakeholders in the field and jointly act to increase the interest in the aging accounting profession, which is of paramount importance to the economy and the state. According to the available data of registered accountants, 53 years is the average age of accountants, and only 24% of the total number of registered that is just over 7,000 are under 35 years, “said Mitkovski and added that if the situation in the field would not improve we face even worse indicators.
Blagoja Grozdanov, board member of the Chamber of Accountants says that accounting is the nervous system of an economy, and professionals who do this work daily are in a highly subordinate position compared to colleagues from a range of other intellectual activities, such as auditors, appraisers, lawyers, skilled persons, notaries, etc.
“It is necessary to take a number of measures by the competent institutions to improve the situation in the field. In practice, there is one extreme imbalance between the imposed obligations of the profession that derive partly directly from certain legal solutions, and partly from the practical application of the legal provisions and rights that the profession has and the protection it receives from those who are the largest users of financial statement data. . An average accountant in his working week will have to perform a series of imposed obligations that will likely come into contact with or need to compile reports for the Central Registry, the Public Revenue Office, the State Statistical Office, the National Bank, commercial banks, etc. All of these imposed obligations must be counterbalanced, that is, to strike a balance between rights and obligations. All institutions that are end users of the reports they expect to receive from accountants must recognize the importance of the profession and work together to protect and enhance it. Otherwise we will face the reality of the situation very quickly. All in all, financial statement data will be of poor quality, tax evasion will grow, the gray economy will flourish, and no one will want to do accounting due to the imbalance of responsibilities and liabilities on one hand and the rewards of the other side. In fact, soon this demographic profession that is “old” will become scarce. As things are going now, I do not know a young person who would like to do this job, “Grozdanov said.
As in all other activities, it is necessary to clear the gray economy, as only licensed accountants registered in the relevant registries will have the right to submit reports to the competent institutions.
The Chamber of Accountants continuously works to improve the quality of accounting in order to regulate the profession and protect not only the companies engaged in this activity, but also all other companies – users of services.
