We need new models of public procurement April 29, 2021 Public procurement has been in the headlines recently, and not for wholly good reasons. During the pandemic, governments around the world have rushed to buy essential kit – including face masks, gloves, medical equipment and vaccines – from suppliers. This scramble has come at a price, with the balance of power moving from the buyer [...]
ACCA’s Helen Brand shares why equality in business is key March 11, 2021 On Monday it was International Women’s Day…a day which should be celebrated all year round as it’s where globally we celebrate women’s achievements while calling out inequality and the work that still needs to be done. To mark the occasion, ACCA’s chief executive Helen Brand has taken part in a Q&A to share with City [...]
Tracking the pandemic’s impacts on small business February 18, 2021 Next week the Government will provide an update on the lockdown exit plan with a much-speculated upon roadmap to recovery out of the pandemic. This roadmap needs clear signposts and barrier-free routes to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) recover. It has been a turbulent year for them, evidenced in results from the ACCA UK [...]
How to restore trust in a digitalised society October 15, 2020 Before the ascent of the internet, trust was earned through local reputation. A network of family, friends and neighbours determined which organisations could be relied upon by word of mouth. Someone would confide that a car dealer had let them down and was not to be trusted, shifting business elsewhere. Every parent was quickly made [...]
Accountancy and finance teams must learn to embrace analytics September 29, 2020 The global pandemic has cast a new light on priorities across many different industries. Suddenly, the most important asset a pub can have is a large open garden. Low wooden beams and small rooms seem dangerous rather than charming and characterful. Public transport systems that offered efficient mass transit across cities are being shunned by [...]
15 years that changed the world of journalism and audit September 7, 2020 The world was a very different place 15 Septembers ago. Tony Blair was settling into his final term as Prime Minister after winning Labour’s third consecutive election. England’s cricketers retained the Ashes after the most thrilling series in memory. Oasis topped the singles charts for the very last time. And in September 2005, the UK [...]
Counting the human cost of Covid — and of leaving small business owners behind July 23, 2020 The daily lists of cases, tests and R numbers tell a tale of the scale of the Covid-19 crisis, but they don’t always explain the full story of the cost on people’s lives. ACCA and the Corporate Finance Network (CFN) are running a tracker poll among accountancy firms representing more than 22,000 small businesses to [...]
The UK’s long road to Covid-19 recovery May 27, 2020 As the discussion on how the UK navigates its post-lockdown journey continues, it is becoming increasingly clear that the road ahead remains fraught with uncertainty. There is a huge series of steps the government and organisations of all sizes must negotiate before reaching even a sense of life before Covid-19. Assessing the modelling of roadmaps [...]
Achieving budgetary balance in a virus crisis March 12, 2020 A proportionate response needs to be adopted in the face of the spread of Covid-19. That was certainly the sense from yesterday’s Budget. A calm and measured chancellor presented this government’s first Budget during very unusual times. This outbreak has been devastating, initially in China, but now in Italy and Iran too, with many countries [...]
Fighting shadows: Each technology advance puts new weapons in the hands of cyber-criminals February 13, 2020 US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, talking about the benefits of openness and transparency, famously said that sunlight is the best disinfectant. And, conversely, we are all rightly suspicious of anything that hides in the shadows and conceals identity and motive. Global cybercrime is able to exploit technology to create anonymity and avoid accountability as [...]
