CPA leadership has ‘lost the plot’, says rebel member

On Monday, the accounting body issued a statement to more than 150,000 members warning them that one of their peers has legally obtained their contact details and may seek to contact them over grievances he and some supporters have over management and governance issues.

While the “special announcement” did not provide the name of the individual member in question, the member is believed to be Brett Stevenson, a CPA who has been leading a crusade against the organisation’s leadership and recently obtained a database of fellow members after paying a fee.

In an email to stakeholders, Mr Stevenson defended himself strongly against the charges laid against the anonymous member in the board’s communication, saying that to “call the letter a disgrace is too good” and doubling down on his call for enhanced disclosure.

“If … the board of CPA Australia think they can get away without reporting the remuneration of the at least $3,800,000 (and that is the minimum we can calculate) remuneration paid to Messrs Malley, Awty and Hughes in 2016 without fully disclosing and rightly receiving some member backlash, I suggest they have lost the plot,” Mr Stevenson wrote.

“This is scandalous and they jolly well know it – hence why no full disclosure.”

Mr Stevenson’s email systematically responded to each of the charges laid in the board’s communication, including the implication that all CPA Australia members now faced a security risk regarding their personal information.

“Let's keep some perspective here: I have a mailing list of now over 1,000 members, from whom I have received positive responses of support from almost 400 of them, and only 19 have asked to be unsubscribed,” he wrote.

“I have requested access to the full members register because the Corporations Act 2001 allows this to enable members to have some means to communicate with other members when the board and senior management of the company have gone astray. This is the law of the land, and this section was put in place partly to cover situations such as this.”

In addition to concerns over executive remuneration, Mr Stevenson and his supporters have raised issues relating to the effectiveness of marketing efforts to raise the profile of CEO Alex Malley and perceived lack of disclosure around the funding and operations of the CPA Australia Advice licensee.

Mr Stevenson said he has been inundated with messages of support from fellow CPA Australia members.