Accra, July 18 GNA - The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Ghana Branch has honoured a number of individuals and organizations through whose varied support the Association has thrived in the country.

Award winners at the Investiture and Awards Dinner event included Nii Quaye Mensah, a Veteran Accountant; Dr Charles Mensa, Resident Director of VALCO; Mrs Elizabeth Villars, Managing Director of Camelot Ghana Ltd and Professor J.B.K. Aheto, Deputy-Director General of GIMPA.

Among the organizations that were honoured were Ghana Commercial Bank and Ghana Health Services, according to a statement issued in Accra on Monday by the ACCA.

A new nine-member Executive Committee to run the affairs of the ACCA for a year was also sworn in.

Mr Isaac Nyame of PriceWaterHouseCoopers is now President of the Association. Other members are Mr Alhassan Haruna of Metro TV; Kingsford Arthur, Delloite and Touche; Charles Reindorf, Bank of Ghana and Mrs Veronica Appiagyei of SSNIT.

The rest are Mr George Swanzy Winful, Audit Service; Mr Kwame Antwi-Boasiako, Central University College; Ms Ramatu Kitcher Pentey, Ghana Health Service and Mr Eric Dontoh of Accounting Solutions.

The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr (Mrs) Gladys Ashitey, who was the Guest of Honour, commended the ACCA for the immense role it had played in the development of the nation.

She said the Government would continue to recognize the ACCA and other professional accountants as equal partners in development. "We in government believe that professional accountants are equally development partners. We need them to play the watchdog role over government purse and be the superintendent of the process of transparency and accountability," she emphasized.

The Deputy Minister, who is also the NPP MP for Ledzokuku, referred to the low number of professional accountants in the country and called on the ACCA to work hard to offer student accountants the needed support to enable them to qualify to become members.

She noted that although the economy required more than 8,000 professional accountants for efficient management, there were currently about 2,000. Out of this, 600 of them ACCA members.

ACCA, a worldwide recognized and respected professional association; has been in existence for over a 100 years. It currently has more than 345,000 students and members in 160 countries, with Ghana having the largest number of student population in Africa. In his acceptance speech, Mr Isaac Nyame said the ACCA was committed to promoting national issues.

He said in collaboration with other professional bodies the Association would target most of its continuous professional development programmes at issues of corporate governance in organizations, poverty reduction, private sector development and efforts at ensuring a corruption-free society.

The out-going President, Mr Suganthan Allotey urged members to get more involved in the activities of the Association to help it to grow.