Reviving public trust is priority for accountancy body's new chief

An Australian academic is to be the new chief executive of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, one of the profession's leading representative bodies.

Allen Blewitt, 53, told the Financial Times his priorities would be the restoration of public trust in the profession and raising corporate awareness about international accounting standards.

Mr Blewitt is the third person to be selected as a successor to Anthea Rose, the outgoing chief executive. Two people who briefly held the post of chief executive designate embarrassed the ACCA by subsequently rejecting the post.

Mr Blewitt was chosen from a shortlist of internal candidates, and is the ACCA's executive director for the Asia-Pacific region. He was an academic at Sydney University, and does not
hold a qualification in accountancy.

Mr Blewitt said his role was to provide strong leadership of the ACCA, which has 100,000 members in 13 countries, but expressed confidence he could deal with technical issues.

He admitted public trust in accountants had been damaged by US business scandals, and played down the prospect of a quick restoration. "Rebuilding trust inthe profession is a slow process," said Mr Blewitt. "I do not see it as an overnight, magic bullet type fix."

He said accountants should accept independent regulation to boost confidence in their work. Some countries still have self-regulation of the profession. Mr Blewitt also suggested that legislative and regulatory responses to the US business scandals had been too strong in some countries.