Beginning in October 2021, the ASEAN Federation of Accountants (AFA) hosted a series of seven monthly workshops focusing on IFAC’s requirements for member organizations, the Statements of Membership Obligations (SMOs). The last workshop was held in May 2022.

These workshops helped AFA member professional accountancy organization’s (PAOs) follow and maintain IFAC’s requirements as all AFA primary and associate members are also IFAC member organizations. The workshops also served as a refresher from the 2017 in-person workshop held in Hanoi, Vietnam and allowed new PAO staff and volunteers to familiarize themselves with IFAC’s requirements, appreciate IFAC’s approach in assessing compliance, and hear from their fellow AFA members on best practices.

IFAC requires its members support adoption and implementation of international standards and other pronouncements issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants, International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board, International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, and the International Education Standards, as well as establishing quality assurance and investigation and disciplinary systems.

Workshops featured IFAC staff presentations and guest presenters from AFA member PAOs, the Pan African Federation of Accountants’ CEO. IFAC’s PAO Development Advisory Group member, and IESBA.

Workshop slides as well as discussion summaries are available below.

Workshop participants walked away with a greater understanding of the difference between adopting standards and the implementation activities that support adoption. PAOs walked away with a greater sense of their responsibility for adoption and implementation and how their actions and initiatives support and shape their members and the overall profession in their respective jurisdictions. At the same time, PAOs found value in the opportunity to engage their regional peers on best practices, discussing challenges and learning from global experts.

IFAC supports adoption and implementation efforts, especially in areas that have lower rates of adoption. All PAOs, regardless of level of development, are encouraged to utilize self-assessments that are available for quality assurance review systems (SMO 1), International Education Standards (SMO 2), and Investigation and Discipline (SMO 6).

Lastly, regional organizations such as AFA serve a valuable purpose to promote collaboration, sharing and co-operations amongst fellow PAOs.

“We appreciate the opportunity to working closer with IFAC on our ongoing PAO capacity building effort. These workshops served as a platform for mutual learning and sharing as we continue working on our shared challenges in complying with requirements of the SMOs.” said Aucky Pratama, Executive Director of AFA.

Adrian Lim

Senior Manager, IFAC

Adrian Lim is a Senior Manager with IFAC, where he manages IFAC’s engagement with the Asia Pacific region, and the UK and Ireland. Adrian also leads IFAC’s membership activities and oversees the IFAC Network Partner Program.

Aucky Pratama

Executive Director, ASEAN Federation of Accountants

Aucky Pratama is the Executive Director at the ASEAN Federation of Accountants (AFA). He is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Federation, working with regional and international PAOs and stakeholders in development of the accountancy profession in Southeast Asia. AFA is the umbrella organization for the recognized PAOs of the ASEAN Member States, an accredited Civil Society Organization of the ASEAN, and an IFAC Network Partner.

Tanya Musumhi

Tanya Musumhi is an IFAC regional manager, responsible for the Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe regions. In this role, she helps IFAC’s member organizations and other professional accountancy organizations adopt and implement international standards and best practices and ensure the relevance and resiliance of the accountancy profession. Prior to her time at IFAC, Tanya was a grant capacity senior program manager at World Vision US.  

Tanya holds an MA in International Law and Economics from the World Trade Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland (2009) and an MA in International Policy Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (2007).