PEART…people are encouraged to hire trained chartered accountants, pay a fair wage and ensure they are recruiting and hiring our young people to ensure that we have a surplus of accountants.

Accounting and auditing firm KPMG is reporting that there’s a shortage of chartered accountants and information technology auditors.

Speaking in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, senior partner of KPMG in Caricom Tarun Handa said “we are running 10 and 15 per cent short at the experienced category. We have no problem getting juniors and less experienced persons because those are people still in training.”

However, president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica (ICAJ) Allison Peart is refuting those claims, she said there are chartered accountants in Jamaica who cannot find employment.

Nevertheless, Handa said the shortage KPMG is experiencing has started to affect the timeliness in which audited financial statements are posted by some companies that are listed on stock exchanges across the region.

Handa told the Business Observer that his firm has had to cut ties with some clients highlighting that the workload is overbearing