By Babajide Komolafe

Newly elected President of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Mr. Anthony Harbinson said that his tenure would focus on the issues of ethics and public sector.

Harbinson is Northern Ireland’s Director of Safer Communities and 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.

As Northern Ireland’s Director of Safer Communities, Harbinson, was responsible for the resourcing, policy and legislative framework for reducing offending, policing and community safety.

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 issue 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, Harbinson, whose hobbies include  football, reading, travelling and charity work,  has also served as Director of Resources for the Northern Ireland Office and Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions.

He 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.