Monrovia – A local accounting firm the T.D Joseph and Associates LLC, CPAs has being launched with a vision of becoming a household name in the accounting industry in the very short-run.
This dream according to Mr. Theo Dekonty Joseph, the firm is an outcome of the leading and successful role they have played in the accounting industry in Liberia for more than twenty-five years.
“So, like the Chicago (USA) native Arthur Andersen who left the very prestigious firm – Price Waterhouse & Company to start his own private company – Arthur Andersen & Company in 1913, we have realized our role as a driver in the accounting industry, and believe it is time to drive the industry to greater heights. It is with this vision that Anderson grew his firm to become the number one accounting firm in the world.”
In the same line of vision Joseph said, it is his ardent hope to grow T. D. Joseph & Associates from a historic beginning to a truly great accounting organization, ranking foremost among the leading firms of Liberia, and eventually, West Africa, Africa and the world – in the very near future.
“As to character and reputation, we are on track to be known internationally as possessing a most impressive list of clients and operating in every country in the ECOWAS sub-region and beyond through our foreign representatives. We are hopeful this tremendous growth and development will be accomplished without parallel in the history of the accounting profession in Liberia.
Joseph believes challenging the status quo will be his trademark. He promised to pioneer new ways of serving clients and the public.
This involves ongoing training for their employees and strengthening the firm responsibilities to clients and the Government. This will also involve a commitment to excellence – intelligence, ambition and good work ethics.
These attributes he believes will build his accounting firm into one of the largest and most successful in Liberia.
“In accomplishing this task, we also look forward to an enduring partnership with the Liberian Legislature to enact well-structured income tax laws that would strengthen and provide incentives for the mobilization of domestic revenue and the maintenance of truthfully self-assessed tax declarations. Of course, this partnership comes with our pledge of professional expertise and advice.”
In pursuit of his ambitious vision Joseph is of the conviction that merely reporting the numbers taken from companies’ records is not enough for them because according to him an auditor’s obligation to the public and the client goes beyond that.
Rather than focusing on the traditional auditing and tax services, T.D Joseph will also concentrate on business consultation which is part of a vision to focus on the quality and value of services offered and rendered.
The accounting firm will pursue quality and value of services from a profound belief that Certified Public Accountants have two duties which includes; providing the highest professional services to the client and the public, and guiding its act with serious social and national responsibilities.
In its plan to offer services beyond the ordinary tax and auditing services expected of accounting firms, the T.D Joseph accounting firm have created a Business Re-engineering Group within its firm to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of clients’ financial and management position, and to offer services to correct the weaknesses.
“At T. D. Joseph & Associates, we insist that the accountant is more than a compiler of figures and a detector of defalcations.
The businessman has found that advice from an accounting viewpoint may have a high cash value in the form of taxes saved or refunded, and in recapitalization and refinancing.
“We are equally straightforward and relentless in our demand that the accounting profession in Liberia would be better off establishing uniform principles and definitions for itself rather than relying on government regulations.
“To achieve these, we have adopted a novel and revolutionary practice of recruiting the brightest accounting students to work for our firm – while they are still in college. This is beyond the customary practice among Liberian accounting firms to hire inexperienced junior accountants only for the busy season.
By this strategy, and utilizing our experience in academia, we are able to hand pick top students and graduates who share in the vision of serving many types of businesses. We are building a “‘different kind of accounting firm’” by hiring a different kind of staff-personnel,” he added.