Accountant slams ‘heavy-handed’ QBCC approach

A Pelican Waters-based accountant says the stroke of a pen has cast a cloud over a career 40 years in the making.

CRITICAL: John Kyriakidis says there was a lack of training and transition with the new financial requirement laws, which made it tough for accountants.

A PELICAN Waters-based accountant says the stroke of a pen has cast a cloud over a career 40 years in the making.

John Kyriakidis, of JK Accounting Services, was banned from providing financial information about licensed builders to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission in August last year.

Mr Kyriakidis was one of five accountants banned after a move announced by the QBCC in a statement last year.

In the statement QBCC deputy commissioner Philip Halton alleged Mr Kyriakidis and four others "failed to undertake tests and checks to ensure the company they each represented was paying its debts as and when they fell due".

But Mr Kyriakidis slammed the action taken by the QBCC.

He told the Daily this week all he'd done was assist his client, a Gold Coast-based builder, to fill out forms before a meeting with the QBCC in Maroochydore last year.

Mr Kyriakidis said he'd advised his client the paperwork was only a draft, as it was incomplete, and told him not to submit the report to the QBCC.

It was advice Mr Kyriakidis said his client ignored, as QBCC analysts began investigating the matter, and then refused to accept a resubmitted form, filled out correctly.

"They treat you like an animal," Mr Kyriakidis said.

He said the forms had been incomplete as he'd had no source documents, as he didn't do the bookkeeping for that client, whose wife did the bookkeeping for the building company.

"With the flick of a pen they turned my 40 years of honesty, integrity and what I believe in, into a criminal," Mr Kyriakidis said.

"As far as I'm concerned they're (QBCC) legislated bullies.

"I do not balance anything mid-month anyway."

Brett Bassett, Commissioner for QLD Building and Construction Commission

The 59-year-old was currently battling health issues and said the action also cost him about $6000 in legal fees, as he tried to fight the ban.

"All they came back with is 'you shouldn't have listened to the client'," Mr Kyriakidis said.

"What they did is wrong. There should've been a transition, there should've been training, there should've been a warning."

Mr Kyriakidis said he had very few builders as clients, so he wasn't across the changes to legislation that were pushed through in January, 2019.

He said when the Australian Taxation Office introduced new legislation it gave accountants a transition period, and he questioned why similar wasn't done by the QBCC, after his issues were raised in March, 2019, only a few months after the legislation took effect.

"I did not do anything fraudulent," Mr Kyriakidis said.

"You try to help (the client) but it backfired on me."

He said there was no benefit to him, as he hadn't even charged the client for the help with the forms.

Mr Kyriakidis said his career in the industry started in 1979, and he'd worked for government bodies, in corporate affairs and in senior positions for major companies like TNT and Ansett.

"I had a lot of responsibility through that," he said.

Mr Kyriakidis said he wouldn't have survived in the industry this long had he not operated within the rules, and he'd worked hard to build his Coast-based accounting firm from the ground up a decade ago.

Mr Kyriakidis questioned why there wasn't a checking mechanism in the QBCC pre-appointments with builders, to ensure any issues with paperwork were rectified before they were submitted to analysts.

"The only thing I did wrong, I should've put draft on the report," Mr Kyriakidis said.

A QBCC spokesman said a series of educational events had been held for accountants since the laws changed.

He said more than 20 face-to-face and online webinars had run across the state, including at industry-run events by the Chartered Accountants of Australian and New Zealand, Certified Practising Accountants and the Institute of Public Accountants.

The spokesman said accountants played "an important role for businesses in the building and construction industry".

"Big and small building and construction companies rely on accountants to help prepare financial information, while the QBCC licensees are out on the tools doing the work they're qualified for," the spokesman said.

"The QBCC relies on the financial reports prepared and approved by accountants to assess the financial health of a company.

"The recent changes to financial reporting laws meant there has been an increased demand on accountants to provide accurate and reliable financial reports to the QBCC.

"If accountants knowingly or unknowingly provide incorrect information to the QBCC it is a serious concern and can disadvantage the licensee who the accountant is working for."

Mr Kyriakidis questioned what training had been provided for Coast-based accountants, and said the QBCC's approach had left many accountants hesitant to deal with builders.

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