CASL pays tribute to chartered accountants

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) recently honoured four eminent Chartered Accountants, in appreciation of their outstanding contribution to uplift the accounting profession, public, private sectors, and society, at the Waters Edge, Battaramulla.

The only surviving member of the Institutes' first Council, Spencer Esmond Satarasinghe, was decorated with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding professionalism and his dedication to the profession and the institute.

The Institute also honoured Rajan Asirwatham, Parakrama Devasiri Rodrigo and Prof. Lakshman Ravendra Watawala by inducting them to the CA Sri Lanka Hall of Fame in recognition of their services to the profession and the public in an illustrious career spanning decades covering the private and public sectors in the country.

Satarasinghe was a founder member of CA Sri Lanka and was the first Chairman of the Taxation Committee of the Institute. He was also the first Sri Lankan to be elevated to the position of Chairman and Managing Director of the local arm of multinational Brooke Bond.

Satarasinghe was a member of the Income Tax Board of Review, Sri Lanka Standards Institution, and Sri Lanka Tea Board. He was also a Director of Bank of Ceylon, Insurance Corporation and Development Finance Corporation.

He was also a Consultant to the Peoples Merchant Bank, Financial Advisor to the Ministry of Plantation Industries, Chairman of

the Agricultural and Industrial Corporation of Ceylon, Janatha Estates Development Board, and Council for Information Technology and Vice Chairman of the Employers Federation.

Among the three chartered accountants inducted to the CA Sri Lanka Hall of Fame, Asirwatham served as the Senior Partner of KPMG till April 2008 in a career spanning over 40 years. He contributed immensely towards the growth and further strengthening of the firm.