SENIOR PUBLIC SERVANT BECOMES PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL ACCOUNTANCY BODY

　　Senior public servant, Northern Ireland’s Director of Safer Communities, Anthony Harbinson, has become President of global accountancy body ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).
　　
　　Anthony Harbinson, who is responsible for the resourcing, policy and legislative framework for reducing offending, policing and community safety, was elected ACCA President for 2014/15 at ACCA’s annual general meeting on 18 September and now represents 170,000 members and 436,000 students in 180 countries around the world.
　　
　　Anthony Harbinson said: 'I am delighted to have been elected to serve as ACCA President, it is a great honour and I look forward to representing our members and students around the world.
　　
　　'I will be focusing on two key themes in the year ahead. The first of these is the issues of ethics and the role of the accountant. Not only does our profession have a responsibility to behave ethically, but it also has a duty to ensure that the organisations for which finance professionals work have an ethical approach to business and operations.
　　
　　'I also want to use my term of office to emphasise the importance of the public sector, the need for it to be effective and efficient and to have the proper financial expertise to achieve this in the short and long term.
　　
　　'The sector has felt the full effects of the global economic crisis – and continues to do so even as the private sector shows signs of recovery.  Ensuring that the public sector can continue to deliver within tight budgets makes it more important than ever to have more fully qualified accountants working in the sector, as well as ensuring that more non accountants have an enhanced financial awareness to support them in their decision making and use of precious resources' said Anthony Harbinson.
　　
　　Prior to his role as Director of Safer Communities, he was Director of Justice Delivery, where he was responsible for the leadership and management of all central services functions and oversight of the Forensic Service Agency, the State Pathologist Department and oversight and direction of the Compensation Agency.
　　
　　During his career Anthony Harbinson, whose hobbies include football, reading, travel and charity work, has also served as Director of Resources for the Northern Ireland Office and Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions.
　　
　　Anthony joined the Civil Service after spending nearly 15 years working in the Northern Ireland Health Service, during which time he held a number of senior roles including Director of Finance, IT and Contracting at Mater Hospital HSS Trust, Director of Finance/Deputy Chief Executive and Eastern Multifund and Director of Finance, HR and Estates in the Eastern/Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.
　　
　　He was also a member of the Northern Health Promotion Agency Board for over a period of ten years, including nine months as Acting Chairman. He has also been a school governor for 16 years and a board member of Threshold NI, a local mental health charity, for over 17 years. He has held the positions of President, ACCA Ireland, Chairman of ACCA’s UK Public Sector Network and a range of other non-executive roles in charitable and community bodies. Last year Mr Harbinson was  Chairman of the UK Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB).
　　
　　- ENDS -
　　
　　FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
　　
　　Colin Davis, ACCA Newsroom
　　
　　+ 44 (0) 207 059 5738
　　
　　+44 (0) 7720 347713
　　
　　colin.davis@accaglobal.com
　　
　　Notes to Editors
　　
　　ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. We aim to offer business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management.
　　
　　We support our 170,000 members and 436,000 students in 180 countries, helping them to develop successful careers in accounting and business, with the skills required by employers. We work through a network of 91 offices and centres and more than 8,500 Approved Employers worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning and development. Through our public interest remit, we promote appropriate regulation of accounting and conduct relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in reputation and influence.
　　
　　Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and accountability. We believe that accountants bring value to economies in all stages of development and seek to develop capacity in the profession and encourage the adoption of global standards. Our values are aligned to the needs of employers in all sectors and we ensure that through our qualifications, we prepare accountants for business. We seek to open up the profession to people of all backgrounds and remove artificial barriers, innovating our qualifications and delivery to meet the diverse needs of trainee professionals and their employers.