Dear colleagues,
The members of the Superior Council would like to wish “Happy birthday!” to all practicing accountants, members of CECCAR.
Ladies and gentlemen, today we celebrate together the first year of the second century of existence of the accountancy profession regulated in Romania.
On July 13th1921, King Ferdinand I approved, by Royal Decree, the Law for organizing the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania, the text of the normative act being countersigned by Grigore Trancu-Iași, in his capacity of minister of labour and social protection. The politicians, thrilled by the patriotism of those times, understood the importance of the existence of practicing accountants supporting the entrepreneurs in Romania in growing prosperous business and that should contribute to ensuring fair legal proceedings through the judicial expertise. Thus, CECCAR became a part of the institutional infrastructure which represented the foundation for building modern Romania.
But history was not gentle with the regulated accounting profession, with the practicing accountants who practice it and with the professional body managing it. After the glory years of the interwar period, which certified the fairness of the decision to regulate the accounting profession and the important role of practicing accountants in modernizing Romania both economically and from the point of view of the judicial system, came the communist period in which the rule of law no longer had any value.
After the nationalization of the main means of production in the year 1948, the taking over by the state of the management of the majority of the economic activity and the management of the accounting profession, the dissolution of the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants followed in the year 1951 – thirty years from setting up. The expert accountants passed in the state’s direct subordination. They also continued their activity in the judicial accounting expertise area in the period after 1951, but their professional independence was affected, which did not contravene to the principles promoted by the totalitarian state.
In the year 1994, in the new political context set by the Revolution of 1989, CECCAR was set up again by GO No. 65. The expert accountants that were at that time under the Ministry of Finance were the founders of the professional body, comprising the body’s branches, restoring, in this way, the status of practicing accountants. This reorganization in an autonomous professional body was imposed by the requirement of ensuring the expert accountant’s professional independence, in the context of the transition to the market economy and reintroducing a legal system specific to democratic societies.
But the present is just as honourable, the acknowledgement of the tradition, prestige and performance of the accounting profession regulated in Romania being certified by the presence of CECCAR members in the management structures, but also in the working committees and technical groups of representative professional organisations at European level and worldwide in the accounting and fiscal field – Accountancy Europe, ETAF, IFAC etc.
The continuous concern of CECCAR for the development of the accounting profession had as a direct consequence the development of the professional body. It has currently become the largest professional body in Romania, with national representation, in each county seat and in Bucharest.
The current socio-economic and political context has brought new challenges for the accounting profession and the professional body – CECCAR. The accounting profession in Romania, resonating with the global one, has reinvented itself, continuously adapting to business models based on the three pillars that ensure competitiveness, namely: technology, globalization and sustainability. Today in their capacity of advisor, analyst, facilitator and confidant, the accounting professional who is a member of CECCAR successfully performs multiple roles that give certainty to entrepreneurs, contributing to the sustainability and resilience of the business.
The value of the accounting profession for the company, for Romania, is based on the fact that it has the ethical responsibility to act in the public interest and to serve its customers professionally. But this cannot be achieved without ensuring the independence of exercising one’s profession and its autonomy. That is why CECCAR, the representative of over 35,000 practicing accountants, will advocate for these essential values and shall sanction any attempt by which they can be affected.
We would like to conclude by addressing today, at anniversary, our institutional partners, the regulatory institutions and authorities, as well as to the business environment, by telling them: CounT on us. CounT, with Us. Always!
Happy birthday, dear colleagues! We wish you lots of success!
The Superior Council of CECCAR
