Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU)
About Company
The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) is the national Professional Accountancy Organisation (PAO).
ICPAU was established in 1992 by an Act of Parliament, now the Accountants Act, 2013.
The functions of the Institute, as prescribed by the Accountants Act, 2013 are:
- To regulate and maintain the standard of accountancy in Uganda;
- To prescribe and regulate the conduct of accountants and practising accountants in Uganda.
Vision
A globally recognised promoter of accountants for sustainable economies.
Mission
To develop and regulate accountants for professional excellence and sustainable impact.
Values
• Professional Excellence
• Accountability
• Integrity
• Responsiveness
Affiliations
ICPAU is a member of;
a) The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)
b) The Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA)
c) The Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA)
d) Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU)
e) The Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda (ICGU)
f) The Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE)
WHERE WE STARTED FROM
In 1967, the East African Community (EAC) was founded by the Governments of three countries Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. The idea of setting up accountancy institutes was conceived by the Governments of the three East African countries and each government was to pass an enabling law.
In Uganda, an Accountants Act was enacted in 1970 but unfortunately, due to the political upheavals of that time, the Act never got the required Presidential assent to effectively become an enabling law. It remained on the shelves of the Parliament until 1992 when the new Act was enacted.
At ICPAU’s inception, the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Finance under the International Development Association (IDA) project provided a seed grant of US1 million dollars to start the profession. Part of the grant was used for a twinning arrangement with an experienced accountancy body; the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the oldest professional accountancy institute in the world, to assist ICPAU in its formative years. This enabled the Institute to start on a firm foundation. ICAS was instrumental in establishment of the framework for the accountancy qualification, the Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (CPA-U) course and the first examinations were held in 1998.
At the establishment of ICPAU, only 79 professional accountants were registered and these are counted as the only professional accountants the country had at the time. All of them held foreign professional accountancy qualifications. A number of World Bank reports of past years indicate that the cost of training professional accountants in the country was high, mainly, due to reliance on foreign professional accountancy courses and materials. The development of ICPAU therefore is an intervention to reduce the cost of professional accountancy training in the country.
