Wanted: Filipino CPAs for the US market

Two senior guys from US-based auditing firm Ernst & Young are coming over next month to, uhm, aggressively recruit CPAs from local companies other than its local partner, SGV & Co.

You see, SGV chairman David Balangue wouldn’t hear of it, having lost more than 50 employees to American companies recruiting through the Internet.

And get this. The going rate for a CPA with five to seven years experience is between $85,000 and $100,000 a year.

The US demand for Filipino CPAs can be traced to two factors aside from the "English proficiency factor". One, accounting hanky-panky is now a criminal offense, which means chief executive officers and chief financial officers of US-based companies (think Enron) can go to jail if they cook the books. Two, there’s not enough new accountants entering the job market, the result of a drop in enrollment a couple of years back as the industry cut back on manpower.

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Asia Capital Equity president Frank Borromeo seems to be back in business, with offices in Cebu and Bacolod.

As everybody knows, Asia Capital was closed down by the Philippine Stock Exchange after it was discovered that it sold stocks it did not own and which clients warehoused with it without the permission of clients.

Mr. Borromeo wasn’t around to face irate clients. Neither was his wife, a daughter of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan.

What‘s even more painful, the prices of some of these stocks sold have already gone, which technically means that the clients would have earned more if they had sold their stocks now.

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In a letter dated April 6, Prestige Cars Inc. president Jose Alvarez Jr. reacts to an April 5 write-up about a BMW that was brought out of the casa by an employee without authorization and that was totally wrecked by the said employee. Here’s the gist of the letter.

"It is unfortunate that one of our employees did, indeed, drive one of (our client‘s) cars (out of) the casa, and subsequently wrecked this vehicle. The employee is a service advisor, and not a sales person as reported. Furthermore, this erring employee has since been fired, and criminal charges have been filed against him. This unfortunate incident is an isolated and first-time occurrence"

"We have spoken to the customer whose car was victimized by this particular employee. We have agreed to replace his vehicle with the exact same model and color. In fact, the replacement vehicle is a 2005 model and has a much lower mileage of 79 kilometers compared to the customer’s vehicle, which is a 2003 model and had a mileage of 19,995 kilometer when it entered the casa. The customer was also given a service vehicle until the replacement vehicle is delivered to him by the end of this week."

"We, at Prestige Cars, consider customer satisfaction as our reason for being in business. It is unfortunate that this incident occurred. However, we have taken full responsibility for the misdeed of one of our employees, undertaken swift corrective action, and will provide a superior replacement vehicle to our customer’s satisfaction."