United for Accounting – Innovation and Resilience among Portuguese-speaking Countries

Paula Franco  | 

In times that are so marked by health and economic crises—which affect us all personally, professionally, economically, financially and socially—our common bond of professional values is fundamental to safeguarding the public interest and the value-add of auditing and accounting.

The Union of Portuguese Language Accountants and Auditors (UCALP) was created on a shared foundation of language, culture, and a commitment to technical and professional principles and standards. UCALP brings together 750,000 accountants and auditors to collaborate and share best practices for the development of the profession.

Since its founding one year ago, the activities of UCALP may have had to change but its vision has not. UCALP has not stagnated but rather been flexible, innovative, and resilient—charateristics that our profession also embodies—and has created new opportunities and tools to overcome recent obstaclaes.

An excellent example of this continued effort was the digital conference “United for Accounting” held in September. Nine countries, represented by the leadership of OCC (Portugal), OCAM (Mozambique), OROC (Portugal), IBRACON (Brazil), CFC (Brazil), OCPCA (Angola), OPACC (Cape Verde), OTOCA (Saint Thomas and Prince), ORNATOC - GB (Guinea-Bissau) and CRAC (Macau), came together for a thought-provoking and productive discussion on the role of accountants and auditors during the current pandemic in Portuguese-speaking countries, the role of professional accountancy organizations, and future perspectives for professionals and their clients.

UCALP serves as a platform for connection and cooperation among professionals and will continue to contribute to the development of the profession in all Portuguese-speaking countries in support of global economic growth.

We invite you to relive this latest event and connect with us further on our YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Paula Franco

President

Paula Franco was born on September 29, 1969, in Lisbon. She is a certified accountant, tax consultant and trainer. She owns an accountancy and tax consultancy SME and has been the President of Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados (Portugal) since 2018.

She is the author of technical opinions and various articles published in various media. She has been an interlocutor in clarification sessions and seminars on taxation and accounting in Portugal and all over the world.

She is also a member of expert groups from international organizations such as EFAA, FCM and CILEA. In the latter organization, she holds one of the vice-presidencies and she imported the best practices and international contributions to the profession in Portugal. She is president of the Portuguese-speaking Union of Accountants and Auditors (UCALP), created in 2019.