Alex Malley has been called out repeatedly now for belabouring CPA Australia's "record surpluses" during his time at the helm. This brag, of course, misses the fact that CPA isn't a profit-making enterprise but a service provider owned by its members. In this case, enormous surpluses of funds are funds either being overcharged or under invested.
The same goes for assets. Why, oh, why does CPA have assets worth $195.4 million, including $97m in cash? If you deduct its $104.4m of liabilities, its net asset balance is $91m, which works out at $568 per member.
CPA's competitor Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand is an even more egregious hoarder, with net assets of $71.6 million, or $612 per member. Engineers Australia is another shocker with $32m, or $320 per member.
Look abroad (as Malley the globalist is forced to do for any real peers), and America's CPA reported a 2016 net asset balance of $39.4m, or $94 per member. The UK's highly regarded Chartered Institute of Management Accountants carries net assets of $4m, or $40 per member.
Whether they be physicians' colleges, law councils or directors' institutes, the core service mandates have become buried by creeping charters. Senior personnel imagine themselves as real estate trustees and fund managers so as to justify the commensurate, inflated pay packet. Is it any wonder these "leaders" are constantly proselytising new frontiers, when every new growth march warrants a new plunderable cost line?
Whether $91 million or $32 million – both are proof of grievous overcharging and under servicing of members. It's about bloody time for a special dividend payment! And a return to the basics, especially on values. And no, not the self-aggrandising proverbs you read about in dismal airport books.
