ICMA conducts accountancy course

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) of Australia, a registered body specialising in offering programmes in management accounting, recently concluded its first intensive Certified Management Accountant (CMA) programme in India in technical collaboration with First Canvas "" a New Delhi-based training company.

Senior accounting professionals including practicing chartered accountants and cost and works accountants attended the 7-day programme.

Interspersed with a large number of case-studies, the training programme covered areas such as cost accounting and cost management, process control, activity-based management, marketing and strategic management accounting. The course which cost Rs 19,000 (exclusive of service tax) attracted 24 chartered accountants from across the country.

The next programme is planned for April 2005.

Professor Janek Ratnatunga, chairman of the education committee of ICMA conducted the training programme. Participation in the ICMA programme leads to membership of ICMA, an international accountants' body originating from the Institute of Management Accountants of the US.

Accounting professionals with over 10 years of experience in their field are exempt from the programme examinations, while others are required to take tests in two university subjects at the master's-degree level.

Alternatively, the Certified Management Accounting status requires a candidate to clear both the Institute's Advanced Management Accounting and Advanced Strategic Management Accounting subjects at the post-graduate level, besides having five years of experience in management accounting.

A senior chartered accountant from Mumbai, Christopher D'Souza, said that the case studies in the course were useful and had been drawn from various American and Australian companies. D'Souza called it a "mini MBA", with modules on advanced management accounts, costing, financial dimensions of pricing in international markets, accounting for marketing product management and strategic value analysis.