Asia vulnerable to U.S.-style accounting fiascos despite reforms
Asia vulnerable to U.S.-style accounting fiascos despite reforms
Martin Abbugao, Agence France-Presse, Singapore
The slew of scandals rocking corporate America should prompt Asia to review its own accounting and auditing standards, regional analysts say, cautioning against gloating at the apparent reversal of fortunes.
As Asia emerges stronger after its 1997-98 financial crisis, it sits in the box seat as the United States takes stock of the debacles jarring some of its most revered companies.
"What a difference five years does make," said Thomas Dawson, chief spokesman of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose painful medicine during the Asian crisis sparked much criticism.
"It's now the U.S. and the industrialized countries that are going through a time of soul-searching and adjustment while East Asia appears to be back on track," he told a recent forum in Singapore.
Economists, however, warn that despite Asia implementing urgently needed reforms following the 1997 meltdown, it remained vulnerable to problems similar to those which brought down U.S. energy giant Enron Corp. and telecom company WorldCom, among others.
Enron collapsed and WorldCom is fighting bankruptcy after irregularities in their books involving billions of dollars were exposed, raising questions over the quality of U.S. auditing and accounting standards.
The irony is not lost on some commentators who say the U.S. has lost the moral high ground to lecture Asia on business ethics.
But Srinivasa Madhur, an economist with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said corporate America's woes should prompt Asia to take a closer look at its own vulnerabilities.
"If a mature economy like the US, with all the regulatory framework in place, could face this sudden corporate governance issues I would be very concerned. We do not know what we will unearth in this part of the world," he told AFP.
"I have no reason to rejoice ... This is a time when we should look at our own house in a much more introspective manner."
Economist Michael Backman, who has written extensively on the stranglehold of families on Asian businesses, said an Asian-style Enron debacle could be in the wings.
"We had one Enron in the United States, but how many potential Enrons are here in East Asia? Maybe 5,000 ... 10,000?" he told AFP.
Tunku Abdul Aziz, a former Malaysian central banker and now vice chairman of the global anti-corruption group Transparency International, said Asia must get a grip on the problem with sound accounting standards that are rigidly enforced.
"The main challenge for Asian companies is really to make sure that they are up to internationally accepted standards because in a globalized economy, they will just have put their houses in order," he said.
Jemal-ud-din Kassum, World Bank vice president for East Asia and the Pacific region, said the Enron debacle showed that poor business ethics was not an issue only for developing countries.
"In fact it remains a big issue in all market economies," he told an anti-corruption forum in Singapore.
Economists see America's problems as much narrower than those of Asia in 1997-1998, limited to accounting and auditing irregularities.