Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Dec 05, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Dec 05, 2002 |
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Opinion
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Accountancy Columns - Account Speak Anti-conversion
MOST accountants are against any move to ban conversion. Thankfully, however, their objection is not based on religion but numbers. Any CA worth his salt should be able to turn the digits on their heads, and if he were to head the finance function, his skills are routinely put to test when the bottom line is drawn. It happens, at times, that long after the exercise, somebody gets the scent of it and shouts `foul'. An upright accountant would not cave in but honourably exit, as happened in the case of Wipro GE, where the CFO packed up his bags and took with him a whole bunch of junior executives when it was found that company had overestimated revenues by Rs 38 crore. At times, a comfort line that is offered by the company PR is that fiddling with accounts did not happen for personal monetary gain, but was sheer `callousness' in accounting. A more appropriate word would be `carelessness', one might think, but nobody understands that accountants have indeed to work overtime to convert profits into losses, and vice versa, depending upon economic compulsions. Similarly, they often engage in overstating gains, if there are bankers to please or shareholders to appease. Trying to stop accountants from fiddling with figures would be as difficult as getting scores of kindergarten kids to keep quiet in the class, or ensuring that all participants switch off their mobiles in a conference hall. Or, worse still, disciplining the auto drivers in the city, or pleading with terrorists to keep off the trigger. The onus is on the users of financial statements to be sensible enough to filter out the exaggeration, the same way one does with dramatists on stage. When one can put up with amplified politeness on the part of salesmen and stewardesses, a hyperbole of achievements when introduced in a meeting, or TV news that is embroidered with opinions, why single out accountants for not being honest. As fanatics believe, a special place is reserved in heaven for those CAs who are adept at converting revenue into capital, and a tax on income to a refund from the Department.
D. Murali
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