09-14-2008, 08:51 AM
Dear Friends
My post here is an attempt to correct probable false impresion about CGA. I think one should not rank global qualifications unless the person has a real experience about a global designation with special reference to that specific country. Certified General Accountant CGA is one of 3 officially accepted and preferred Canadian accounting associations (i.e. CGA, CMA, CA). Besides these 3, only CPA (USA) has official acceptance in Canada. It means only members of these 4 associations can represent themselves as designated accountants in Canada. Legally speaking, a member of any other GLOBAL ACCOUNTING association like ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA (UK), CA of Ireland or Australlia CAN NOT represent themselves as Chartered Accountants and CANNOT use any combination of alphabets "C" and "A" to general public, to their clients, and on stationary or business card. Canada has very strict rules of presentation to public. Members of other GLOBAL ASSOCIATIONS can ONLY write their memberships on resume to prospective employers. In a recent court case with CICA, President of ACCA (Canada) had to take back the letters "ACCA" from his letter pad and stationary, and had to ask its members in Canada not to use letters "ACCA" on stationary. Same is the case in USA too. As far as I know, with exception to Colorado, almost all other States do not accept ACCA courses for credits toward 150 credit hour requirement to sit for CPA exam. In both, Canada and USA, ethical and practice rules and regulations are quite restrictive. Though ACCA, CA-EW, and CIMA have MRAs with 3 accounting designations, but the members of 3 UK bodies cannot represent to public unless they get designation of any one of 3 local Canadian designations.
Now back to the point, CGA is at par with other two designations. It is completely accepted and prefered by both the public and government. Only these 3 designations in the world are legally accepted to get a TN Visa (under NAFTA agreement) to work in USA, besides offcourse US CPA and CMA(IMA). As far as scope in Pakistan is concerned, CGA is north american and an international designation that is available in 8 or 11 countries and also scope depends on experience an accountant has. Following are the links for further info.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certified_General_Accountant
http//www.settlement.org/discuss/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8170
http//www.accaglobal.com/canada/publicinterest/about/learn
http//www.cga-canada.org/en-ca/Pages/default.aspx
http//www.cga-ontario.org/
Regards
My post here is an attempt to correct probable false impresion about CGA. I think one should not rank global qualifications unless the person has a real experience about a global designation with special reference to that specific country. Certified General Accountant CGA is one of 3 officially accepted and preferred Canadian accounting associations (i.e. CGA, CMA, CA). Besides these 3, only CPA (USA) has official acceptance in Canada. It means only members of these 4 associations can represent themselves as designated accountants in Canada. Legally speaking, a member of any other GLOBAL ACCOUNTING association like ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA (UK), CA of Ireland or Australlia CAN NOT represent themselves as Chartered Accountants and CANNOT use any combination of alphabets "C" and "A" to general public, to their clients, and on stationary or business card. Canada has very strict rules of presentation to public. Members of other GLOBAL ASSOCIATIONS can ONLY write their memberships on resume to prospective employers. In a recent court case with CICA, President of ACCA (Canada) had to take back the letters "ACCA" from his letter pad and stationary, and had to ask its members in Canada not to use letters "ACCA" on stationary. Same is the case in USA too. As far as I know, with exception to Colorado, almost all other States do not accept ACCA courses for credits toward 150 credit hour requirement to sit for CPA exam. In both, Canada and USA, ethical and practice rules and regulations are quite restrictive. Though ACCA, CA-EW, and CIMA have MRAs with 3 accounting designations, but the members of 3 UK bodies cannot represent to public unless they get designation of any one of 3 local Canadian designations.
Now back to the point, CGA is at par with other two designations. It is completely accepted and prefered by both the public and government. Only these 3 designations in the world are legally accepted to get a TN Visa (under NAFTA agreement) to work in USA, besides offcourse US CPA and CMA(IMA). As far as scope in Pakistan is concerned, CGA is north american and an international designation that is available in 8 or 11 countries and also scope depends on experience an accountant has. Following are the links for further info.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certified_General_Accountant
http//www.settlement.org/discuss/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8170
http//www.accaglobal.com/canada/publicinterest/about/learn
http//www.cga-canada.org/en-ca/Pages/default.aspx
http//www.cga-ontario.org/
Regards
