President’s Report 2023-2024 – The 28th Year
In 2023-24 we continued with the successful strategies of the institute, especially with the Global Zoom Program offered by its fully owned Syme Business School, being a great success, with over 120 participants from 25 countries across the globe participating each time.
Consequently, I am happy to report that in 2024 the strong momentum continued, and therefore, our Institute in its 28th year is even stronger and in stellar health, both at home in Australia & New Zealand as well as internationally.
I am pleased to report that, financially we had our most successful year on record this financial year:
Our revenue grew by 6% only following and membership subscriptions grew by 4% over the previous year. This growth though it does not seem significant – it comes on the top of a record growth of 37% and 35% which followed Covid.
The current financial 2024-25 looks promising and the numbers are higher than last year. We can be cautiously optimistic of stronger growth in the years to come
ICMA has adapted very well to the challenging post-pandemic world and has emerged stronger and more resilient by channelling its resources towards:
- Maintaining the New Zealand Government Qualification Authority (NZQA) assessment for the CMA program as being equivalent to the highest postgraduate level (Masters)
- Improving our website.
- Enhancement of our member portal.
- Holding two very successful Global CMA Zoom programs – the latest of which was attended by 125 participants from 25 countries across the world
- Holding regular Webinars for our members.
- Submissions to the Government.
- Attended industry relevant seminars and meetings
- Sponsoring awards at Universities
- Publishing opinions pieces and media releases on important matters.
- Providing an electronically verifiable membership badge (certified by Credly) available to our members.
Library: The library now has over 12,500 texts and professional and academic publications and has now one of the best libraries in Australia in the professional areas of management accounting and risk management.
The physical library is still not fully functional due to continuing work-from-home policies at ICMA (ANZ), and the physical office only being open for limited periods. Arrangements have made to secure the use of digital library services for members via Topiau Library Services.
Conferences and Webinars delivered internationally by Regional Offices:
Our Indonesian branch continues to be the most proactive and dynamic one conducting an average of 2 webinar every month – during the year they conducted over 20 webinars across Indonesia in collaboration with universities and other prominent Indonesian businesses. Because of Timing, there were two International Management Accounting Conferences (IMAC) in Indonesia in the financial year, in November 2023 and February 2024
Besides Indonesia, the Sri Lankan branch also conducted many webinars as did our branches in Hong Kong, Philippines and Bangladesh.
ICMA’s first gathering of all its Regional Directors (dubbed G20 Summit) was held on 24th October 2023, in Pattaya Thailand. It was an immense bonding exercise and made everyone part of the ‘CMA Family’.
Publications: The eNewsletter On Target continued to be published and the web-analytics indicates that it gets on average 5,000 visits and 6,000-page views per month.
Management Accounting Frontiers (MAF) continued to be published in 2023-24. The Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research (JAMAR) which changed editorial direction in 2017 to publish peer-reviewed practice oriented applied papers for the management accounting profession, continued to publish two issues in 2023 and 2024.
Research: Research and professional development also continued in the two organizations set up by the ICMA:
The Institute of Certified Carbon Analysts and Auditors (ICCAA) and
The Institute for the Advancement of Corporate Reporting and Assurance (IACRA).
Syme Business School (100% Owned by ICMA)
Syme Business School continued to organise Zoom programs for ICMA as listed above and this proved to be profitable and efficient for Syme Business School. As a result of this, ICMA is happy to announce that Syme Business school made a profit for the fourth consecutive financial year in 2023-24 and is continuing to operate profitably in 2024-25. Consequently, they continue to reduce the accumulated past losses.
For the first time Syme Business School organized the inaugural CMA program in Bangkok in 2023. It went all out to ensure the success of this inaugural program
The successful launch was followed by the second program in October 2024. We now have a strategic window of opportunity to make further inroads into the large Thailand market
Committees & Boards: The ICMA has a number of Committees and Boards for its Governance.
Education Committee
- Education Advisory Board
- Professional Education Sub-Committee
- Continuing Education Sub-Committee
- Academic Education Sub-Committee
Membership Committee
- Membership Advisory Board
- Membership Services Sub-Committee
- Industry and Government Engagement Sub-Committee
- Ethics Sub-Committee
Finance Committee
- Finance, Audit & Risk Advisory Board
The Council thanks all who voluntarily served on these Committees and Boards for their time and dedication.
Services Provided by the Secretariat:
- CPD Register: The institutes online CPD Register where members can upload the CPD they have undertaken in the assessment period.
- CPD: Providing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities to members via Calwest University in the USA and the Academy of Finance and Management Australia (AFMA). Special arrangements were made with these two organisations to provide education programs at discount prices to members due to COVID-19 restrictions. These arrangements continued in the 2023-2024 period.
- Website: Maintaining the corporate website that is in keeping with the enhanced international profile of ICMA (ANZ).
- Member’s Only Area: Maintaining a Member’s Only area on the website.
- CMA Updates: Emailing monthly the Members Update, and Publishing in pdf format 6 copies of the On-Target
- CRM: Having a world-class Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to handle the membership, invoicing, examinations and accounts.
- Social Media: The ICMA official sites of Facebook and Instagram are now significantly enhanced and the publications of the CEO Blog continued over the year.
Membership Committee Chairman’s Report
Roshani Perera presented the Membership Committee Chairman’s Report
Membership grew by 10% overall during the year. We had a 9% increase in CMAs and 4% rise AMA’s and no significant increase in the lower levels of membership (CAT/RCA/GMA).
Although membership growth is not a KPI of ICMA, which instead aims for quality by positioning itself as the only specialist professional body for senior executives with education programs at the master’s degree level, members represent the lifeblood of the Institute.
The overall membership of the ICMA now stands at approximately 13,551 members in 114 countries.
Education Committee Chairman’s Report
Prof Janek Ratnatunga, the Education Committee chairman provided an overview of the Education Program of CMA Australia. The Program has Nine Levels and in this financial year, the New Zealand Government Qualification Authority (NZQA) provided equivalency assessments for the different levels of the GMA & CMA programs.
- Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) (Level 4 – Certificate)
- Registered Cost Accountant (RCA) (Level 5 – Diploma)
- Registered Business Accountant (RBA) (Level 6 – Advanced Diploma)
- Graduate Program (For School Leavers) – GMA & AMA (Level 7 – Degree)
- Graduate Conversion Program (For Non-Accounting Graduates/ Professionals) – GMA& AMA.
- CMA Program (For Accounting Graduates/Professionals) –CMA (Level 9 – Masters Year 2)
- CGBA – For Non-accounting Graduates
- MBA, CMA program for Global Leaders
- DBA, CMA program for Applied Research
The Program can be undertaken via:
- University Degree (Undergraduate/Masters)
- Recognised Provider Institution
- Corporate In-House
Prof Ratnatunga also reported that to facilitate its educational objectives in addition to its own nine-level CMA education program, the Institute has accredited a number of universities which have master’s degree subjects that are equivalent to the CMA program. Some of these universities also provide in-house training and examinations of the CMA program. Accounting graduates can do CMA accredited units at these universities to qualify for CMA status. The details of these universities and the subjects accredited are listed on the CMA Website.
CMA Australia also has Recognised providers in Australia and in many different countries the details of which are listed on our website.
Assessments
During to Covid-19 lockdowns assessments were mainly online and digital. These proved to be much more beneficial to even students with less than 10-years’ experience (who previously had to sit written exams at a physical location).
As such the Education Committee formalised the online and digital assessments, which now is the principal mode of assessment at ICMA.
The online assessments are mainly assignments focused on the company that the student works in. The digital assessments are Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs).
Certificates of Proficiency
The following Certificates of Proficiency Programs were designed and offered in 2022-2023.
- International Financial Reporting Standards
- Risk Management (online)
- Islamic Banking and Finance
- Family Business.
- Foreign Exchange Management
- Transport and Shipping
- Supply Chain Management
- Project Management (online)
- Project Finance (online)
- Takaful (Islamic) Insurance
- International Business Analysis (online)
- Logistics Management
- Wealth Management
- Telecommunications Pricing
- Company Secretarial Practice
- Crisis Management
- Forensic Accounting and Auditing
- Human Resource Management
- Sustainable Procurement
- Cross-Cultural Negotiations
- Performance Budgeting
- VAT Law & Practice (UAE)
- Performance and Valuation
- Accounting Practice (Vietnam)
- Performance & Valuation
- Business Valuation (online)
- Digital Marketing (Online)
- Pricing & Revenue Management (Online)
- Environmental & Sustainability Analysis (Online)
Membership Pathways
The Institute of Certified Management Accountant (ICMA) offers a number of membership pathways as follows:
- University Graduates in Accounting
- University Graduates in Finance
- MBA Degree Holders
- University Graduates with Non-Accounting Degrees
- Diploma and Advanced Diploma Holders in Accounting
- Members of Other Professional Accounting Bodies
- Members of Other Professional Non-Accounting Bodies
- Part Qualified Students of Other Professional Accounting Bodies
- School Leavers
- Academics
- Distance Education Scholarship Program
- Emerging Professional Scholarship Program
Treasurers Report
Dr Chris D’Souza presented the Treasurer report.
At the last AGM I had reported that for the then current year 2023-24 we would continue a steady growth pattern, and I expect the steady growth to continue in the current year 2024-25.
The Audited financial report placed before this meeting is in line with the expectations and we have remained financially strong and recorded a small growth in gross revenue of 6% over the previous year. Our expenses only grew by 2% during the year and consequently our surplus is 86% higher than last year.
A slow but steady growth is expected to continue for the current year.
The Financial position of our association remains steady as we grow. The Members funds grew by 7% during the financial year 2023-24 (4% during the previous year) and we expect it to keep growing steadily.
Prudent financial management has left our association well placed with an accumulated balance of members funds of 1.56 million dollars (1.46 million in the previous year) and current liquid assets of 1.52 million (1.38 million in the previous year) as you will see from the Balance Sheet.
The Financial statements of the Institute were distributed to all members present and discussed. The Treasurer, Chris D’Souza then discussed the accounts in detail.
Professor Brendan O’Connell, FCMA
President, ICMA Australia