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Ex-accountant suspended from Co-op board

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22nd Apr 2014
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The troubled Co-operative Group added to its list of embarrassments before Easter when it announced the suspension of a board member who falsely claimed to be an accountant.

Munir Malik is a Labour councillor from Bexley who has been a member of the Co-op’s South London committee since 1998, rising to the Co-op group’s values and principles board in May last year. But it appears that claims that he was a qualified accountant came to in his re-election documents last year.

The ICAEW wrote to Malik in October asking him to stop describing himself as a chartered accountant, and got back an undertaking from him that he would no longer do so.

The institute confirmed that Malik had qualified as a chartered accountant in October 1974, but his membership was terminated in March 1991, when he was declared bankrupt.

“Munir Malik is currently suspended as a director of the Co-operative Group pending the outcome of a board investigation in relation to the qualifications stated in his election materials," the Co-op Group said in a statement issued last week.

On the business front, the Co-op has been reeling from a sequence of disasters, which culminated in loseses of £1.3bn announced in its annual results last week. Sir Christopher Kelly has carried out an investigation that traces the group’s near collapse to its take over of Britannia Building Society in 2009, followed by an abortive attempt to acquire more than 600 branches of Lloyds Bank. The report report is due to be presented at the group’s AGM on 7 May.

Against this backdrop, the group’s corporate governance arrangements have also come under scrutiny , most notably the drug-fuelled antics of disgraced chairman Paul Flowers.

With his accountancy background, Malik presented himself as someone who could hold “management to account”. It’s a pity that during his years in exile from the institute he may have grown less familiar with its tenets of honesty and integrity.

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Replies (19)

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By GuestXXX
17th Mar 2015 16:56

.

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Replying to James Blair:
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By Susanven
24th Apr 2014 12:50

One extra word

Woof!

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By justsotax
24th Apr 2014 12:15

some of us

resent the fact that anyone and their dog can call themselves a tax adviser....guess it works both ways.

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By Paul Cleverley
24th Apr 2014 12:20

Just don't

Pass yourself off as something you're not......

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By InflatableBassPlayer
24th Apr 2014 12:20

A politician not being

A politician not being totally transparent in their dealings with public life.  who'd have thought of it?  Mind you,  looking at the number of self-styled "experts" all over the media these days,  anyone could probably blag their way into high office by just looking like they know what they're talking about.  Believe me,  it happens

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By The Black Knight
24th Apr 2014 12:22

It does seem that dishonesty is a job requirement for large corporate or government.

Wonder who kicked up a fuss? The ICAEW?

It is about time that some spin was re spun as deliberately misleading and fraudulent statements.  There was perhaps a financial gain in his appointment.

Fraud by false representation?

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By Colum
24th Apr 2014 12:26

Clean audit report

The thing that puzzles me is the clean audit report despite the £1.5 billion black hole. 

 

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Replying to BobEdwardsLandmark:
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By abelljms
24th Apr 2014 13:57

high standards indeed

Peter Kidlington wrote:

There may be a more important aspect here....

I don't engage with a Company until and unless I have checked it out thoroughly; I don't go near it by default if it does OTHER than file FULL and NOT ABBREVAITED accounts, and if it does NOT use the accruals principle in preparing those FULL accounts.

 

you may have honourable standards, but i can't be so fussy,

of my 120 clients, none file the accounts you require, so i shall let my wife have the good news she has been badgering me for - abell morliss has shut - due to the appalling standards of its clients.

 

 

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Replying to penelope pitstop:
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By laurenceexigent
24th Apr 2014 16:41

High Standards?

Dear Peter,

Speaking as a user of accountants services rather than an accountant I must say you have an interesting view point. I suggest you might consider being paid by HMRC since you seem to be more interested in working for their benefit than that of your paying clients

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By SJH-ADVDIPMA
24th Apr 2014 12:47

Why don't the organisations that can properly lay claim to the 'Chartered Accountant' title advertise and educate a little more, no one but accountants understands this, and sometimes not even accountants. I know CIMA accountants are trained very lightly in financial accounting, group accounting, audit, tax, very lightly indeed but still command significant industry roles in those areas, down to lack of recruiters knowledge.

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By arcon5
24th Apr 2014 12:50

Quote:

Quote:

This is the second time in the last couple of weeks that somebody appointed to a high office has previously demonstrated his own incompetence in his personal affairs by being declared bankrupt.

Frankly that is a very naive view of bankruptcy!

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By wot
24th Apr 2014 12:53

He actually said he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. Which was completely accurate.

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By wot
24th Apr 2014 13:27

The local tax inspector must love your standards of openness and transparency.

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By jmallen
24th Apr 2014 13:41

Another example of governance failing

This is just another example of the poor governance in place (or not in place) within the Co-op Group.  As a financial services company they should have performed adequate due diligence (both on appointment to the Board and ongoing checks) as part of their resposibilities to ensure compliance with the FCA's Rulebook.  May have a s166 heading their way............

It speaks volumes where the current Board have rejected a number of governance changes from Lord Paul Myners and "suggested" he leave the Board after 4 months.  The culture needs to change, and fast otherwise we could see the loss of another organisation with deep rooted history.

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By justsotax
24th Apr 2014 16:43

@peter (or Daniel I presume)

your clients must love you, disclose full accounts with Co Hse...all info for competition to mull over?

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By ds
24th Apr 2014 16:51

Why should any of this surprise us ?

Seems the Co-Op group has let in some dodgy people and put up with their incompetence in financial affairs for far too long and the results are now laid bare for all to see.  If you have the right connections and political leanings, are brass-necked and are able to pass off fiction as fact, bare faced lies as truth to the television media, press, share holders and regulatory bodies then you are in the club and rewarded quite well for this performance. And while the merry go round continues and the music plays on then it seems no one asks those awkward questions which need to be asked, too big to fail then. Tip of the iceberg as ever.

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By ahingirai
24th Apr 2014 17:02

Coop CA

Did he say he  qualified as a Chartered Accountant or he was a Chartered Accountant?Either way no one can take away the skills and knowledge that he acquired and the taxing drudgery of work he endured in qualifying.However he may not be a practising Chartered Accountant for some reason.

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By The Black Knight
24th Apr 2014 17:03

MM

Hmrc get the full set anyway.

Full statutory accounts are still required by the companies act, although compliance is at an all time low level despite this being a criminal offence.

abbreviated accounts are a good thing as others really do not need your turnover and profit figures.

The trouble is HMRC and companies house have no clue what they are looking at anyway.

Which is what is leading to a fraud free for all.

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By KWest
25th Apr 2014 08:14

Who Else

One wonders exactly how adequately senior members (excluding the bank) are qualified, including by the appropriate experience to run such a large organisation as the Co op. The resignations of Euan Sutherland, Lord Myners and losses of £2.3 billion says not much.

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