ACCA meeting called to examine governance

Members of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants have called an extraordinary general meeting in an attempt to force out senior officers and review its governance.

Former council member Anthony Thomas has collected more than the 100 members' signatures required to force the meeting, which will call for an independent commission "to examine all aspects of the corporate governance of the association".

Whistleblowers reported last month that the association's vice-president, Moyra Kedslie, had joined ACCA after she resigned as head of Hull University's school of accounting, business and finance following an internal report into a management "crisis".

ACCA has also been criticised over its relationships with universities. Leading academics and accounting practitioners have accused it of "undermining accountancy education" with a deal to offer "instant" degrees in association with Oxford Brookes University. Students part-way through ACCA's vocational exams will soon be able to pick up a Brookes degree with no additional work.

ACCA chief executive Anthea Rose was "disappointed" at the call for the extraordinary meeting. She said the association had held two EGMs, in 1995 and 1996, at which the same issues had been voted on.

She added that the meeting would cost Pounds 80,000, which could have been spent on member services.