The Liberia Institute of Certified Public Accountants (LICPA), on Saturday, October 16, 2021 conducted its leadership election to steer the affairs of the institution for the next two years with the re-election of Messrs. Victor SBK Tanwone, Sr and Papin S. Daniels, Jr as President and Vice President respectively on white ballot and Mr. Mohammed Koleh, who was elected as a Councilman having defeated Mr. Robert Smallwood by 26 to 24 votes in a keenly contested duel.
Mr. Steven Seimvula who chaired the election, said as of the deadline for the submission of applications, his committee received only two applications from Mr. Tanwone and Mr. Daniels for the positions of President and Vice President respectively, the same positions they were occupying while applying. He said none came for the position of Councilman for which nominations were made from the floor and Mr. Koleh was elected.
Mr. Tanwone who had occupied all the elective positions he had held going on unopposed, enrolled via the Accounting Technician Scheme West Africa (ATSWA), an equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree according to the Association of Accountancy Bodies in West Africa categorization and obtained his Master of Business Administration from the Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University, Scotland England. He got his Chartered Accountant (CA) designation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana.
He got to the LICPA leadership through the Education and Training Committee as a member and assisted the Committee in developing questions for the country specific subjects and reviewing study texts for the ATSWA program.
He was elected Vice President in 2016 on a white ballot and became President of the Institute on November 15, 2018 after the resignation of then President Mr. Steven Seimavula. He got re-elected President in 2019 on a white ballot on his own term and repeated a similar feat in the election of last Saturday, October 16, 2021 at the just ended Annual General Meeting..
The Vice President, Mr. Papin Daniels, Jr also won three electrons on white ballot.
Speaking after the election, Mr. Tanwone thanked his professional colleagues for finding it worthy to renew their trust and confidence in him with the mandate to lead them for the next two years. I promised to do more than his first tenure where some remarkable and unprecedented achievements were recorded, among which, he mentioned acquiring a new secretariat for the institute, reducing its dependence on government subvention, increase in the number of new members, signing of memorandum of understanding (MOUs) with higher institutions of learning for teaching of professional courses, etc.
“I call on you to rally around our leadership so that together we can build LICPA as a robust institution that we will all be proud of. Through your input and cooperation in our first term, we did a lot for ourselves, I am therefore calling upon you again to redouble your commitment and efforts. LICPA, our profession and country deserve the best”, Mr. Tanwone concluded his brief post-election remark.
The Liberian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (LICPA) is the successor of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Liberia (ICPAL) which was established by an act of the National Legislature in 1933. It was established by an act of the National Legislature in June 2011 to regulate the accounting profession in Liberia. The LICPA is empowered to set standards, license accounting and assurance practitioners, build capacity and do all things appertaining to regulating the accounting and assurance professions aimed at building a strong and vibrant public accounting sector in the country.
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