O'Rourke appointed president of ICAI

Terence O'Rourke has been named as the new President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, it was announced at the institute's AGM in Dublin today.

Mr O'Rourke, who is the institute's deputy president and head of Audit at KPMG, will be taking over from James Hunt.

Also announced today, John Greely is to succeed Mr Rourke as Deputy President of the institute while Martin Wilson, Deputy Chairman of Ulster Bank was elected Vice-President.

Addressing the AGM, Mr O’Rourke, said that 2004-5 would be a year of great change for the Institute having put merger negotiations with the CPA, public concern cases and the enactment of the Companies (Auditing and Accounting) Act, 2003 behind it over the previous 12 months.

He said that the outgoing Institute President and Officer Group had initiated a strategic review of the Institute’s goals and values and that during his Presidency there were two particular issues he would seek to highlight:

"Firstly I want to make sure that our profession engages with Irish Society and with Irish business in a more open and constructive manner. Secondly, I am keen to renew the promise of what financial audit can contribute to Irish companies and Irish business".

He said that during his presidency he wants to make sure that the chartered accountants' profession engages with Irish society and with Irish business in a more open and constructive manner.

He is also keen to renew the promise of what financial audit can contribute to Irish companies and Irish business.

Speaking on the audit process Mr O'Rourke said : "we need to be realistic. There are ways in which we can further improve the audit process and the audit outputs.

But we have to continue to be clear that even the most effective audits cannot catch all wrongdoing. Cannot detect all collusive misconduct. But auditors should have as a goal, the ability to demonstrate, to all who question their work, that all audits are done to the same high standards and that they are carrying out their side of the renewed social contact", he added.