Shining a light into the darkness of  accountancy

Accountancy is in crisis. The Corporate Accountability Network exists to identify the causes of that crisis and offer solutions to it.

We’re pro-business. And we’re pro-accountancy. What we do not like is the idea that accounts, accountancy and accounting exist solely to serve the interests of one group in society. They do not. Accountancy was created with a public purpose. It should fulfil that public purpose.

What we argue is that accountancy can never do that unless it fulfils its obligation to account to all the stakeholders of a company, whether they be the suppliers of its capital; its trading partners; its employees; regulators; tax authorities and civil society – who are everyone it impacts whether or not it has a contract with them.

We live in a mixed economy where the state and private sectors co-exist to meet our needs. That economic model has worked, and could survive long into the future, even with the challenges that issues such as climate change create. But that will only be true if business continues to enjoy the confidence of those who provide it with its licence to operate – which is society at large. It will not do that unless business accounts to everyone in society. The Corporate Accountability Network exists to show that accounting in this way is possible, necessary and achievable.