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Co-Regulatory Model: Institute of Chartered Accountants

The Institute of Chartered Accountants is set up under the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand Act 1996 (hereafter referred to as "the Act"). While the Act applies to the regulation of an occupation, similar principles may be applied to the regulation of franchising arrangements.

Co-regulatory body

The Act provides for the Institute of Chartered Accountants and outlines its statutory functions. The statute and the rules of the Institute provide for the creation of a number of subsidiary bodies that have specialist functions. The purpose of these separate bodies is to create a clear separation between disciplinary functions, rule-making functions and functions related to providing services to members.

The subsidiary bodies outlined include:

• A governing Council that provides oversight of the executive and is responsible for setting rules, including a Code of Ethics.
• An Executive Board that carries out the work of the Institute and provides services to members.
• A Professional Conduct Committee, which is independent of the Board. It is responsible for investigating complaints about members. It is empowered to make rulings (including imposing sanctions or remedial action), accept consent orders in the case of agreed settlements, or refer serious matters to Disciplinary Tribunal.
• A Reviewer of Complaints Procedures considers complaints regarding the handling of complaints by the Professional Conduct Committee.
• A Disciplinary Tribunal, which is independent of the Board. It runs an adversial based process to hear serious complaints referred to it by the Professional Conduct Committee. In such cases, a member of the Professional Conduct Committee will be a party to the proceedings and the person subject to the complaint could also have legal representation.
• An Appeals Council which hears appeals from the Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Rules of the Institute and its Code of Ethics are mandatory for the members. These rules are subject to oversight by the Parliamentary Regulations Review Committee. The Committee may review the content and process by which the rules were set, consider complaints relating to the rules, and call for the rules to be debated in Parliament, including their disallowance.

It is prohibited for any person to use a title holding out to be a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants when they are not a member.