Bashar Akroush CPA JCPA CACM

• Provide leadership and vision to his/ her Jordanian Group Companies by assisting the managers and staff with the development of short and long-term goals and annual plans, and with the evaluation and reporting of progress on plans.
• Develop and monitor strategies for ensuring the long-term financial viability of the Jordanian Group Companies
• Set goals for all departments/ divisions based on the Jordanian Group Companies' plans.
• Oversee preparation of an Annual Report summarizing all aspects of plans to Senior Management.
• Develop proposals as needed to assist the organization in determining and meeting its goals.
• Establish rules, regulations and procedures for the Jordanian Group Companies and ensure they are applied.
• Stay abreast of current trends related to the Jordanian Group Companies' products and services and anticipate future trends likely to have an impact on its work.
• Help in business opportunities.
• Provide vision and leadership in long- range fiscal planning to ensure the continuity and financial health of the Jordanian Group Companies.
• Oversee preparation of annual budget, regular variance statements and annual audit.
• Provide recommendations regarding effective utilization of long and short-term debt, including refinancing.
• Oversee staff in developing annual budgets that support operating plans and submits budgets for management's approval
• Provide prompt, thorough, and accurate information to keep Group CFO appropriately informed of the Jordanian Group Companies' financial position.
• Support the Group CFO to prepare the proper documentation and studies for all subsidiaries and which are requested by banks.
• Creating and monitoring the Jordanian Group Companies' policies and internal controls, especially spending controls, to safeguard the Jordanian Group Companies assets and reduce risk.

Tasks & duties:
•Evaluate and provide reasonable assurance that risk management, control, and governance systems are functioning as intended and will enable the organization's objectives and goals to be met
•Report risk management issues and internal controls deficiencies identified directly to the audit committee and provides recommendations for improving the organization's operations, in terms of both efficient and effective performance
•Evaluate information security and associated risk exposures
•Evaluate regulatory compliance program
•Engage in continuous education and staff development
•Provide support to the company's anti-fraud programs
•Plans financial, regulatory, compliance or operational reviews and audits.
•Conducts risk assessments and identifies controls in place to mitigate identified risks.
•Performs audit procedures to verify that controls are operating through testing and interviewing techniques.
•Analyses and concludes on effectiveness and efficiency of control environment.
•Identifies control gaps and opportunities for improvement.
•Documents the results of audit work in accordance with audit department and the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) standards.
•Prepares timely audit reports for the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors.
•Assess, evaluate and promote compliance to internal JIF policies and procedures.
•Contributes, as appropriate, in the year-end financial audit with the external auditor.
•Provides advice on internal control and participates in enhancing internal audit standards and practices within JIF.
Secretary of the Board roles:
•Attending all the Board of Directors meetings.
•Follow up with all BOD decisions during the year, in terms of proper execution by senior management and accurate documentation.
•Continuous reporting to the board of directors for the status of the decisions and the plan of action.

Manufacturer and construction industry

Tasks & duties:
•Providing and interpreting financial information including balance sheet income statement and executive reports;
•monitoring and interpreting cash flows and predicting future trends;
•Analyzing change and advising accordingly;
•Formulating strategic and long-term business plans;
•Researching and reporting on factors influencing business performance;
•Analyzing competitors and market trends;
•Developing financial management mechanisms that minimize financial risk;
•Conducting reviews and evaluations for cost-reduction opportunities;
•Managing a company's financial accounting, monitoring and reporting systems;
•Liaising with auditors to ensure annual monitoring is carried out;
•Developing external relationships with appropriate contacts, e.g. auditors, solicitors, bankers and statutory organizations such as the Inland Revenue;
•Producing accurate financial reports to specific deadlines;
•Managing budgets with continuous review and analysis;
•Arranging new sources of finance for a company's debt facilities;
•Supervising staff;
•Keeping abreast of changes in financial regulations and legislation.

Special assignments in the following areas:

 Financial review and conversion to IFRS
 Supervising the accounting department’s operations, staff, reviewing of accounting records and preparing financial reports for clients in different sectors (e.g. trading, contracting, oil and Gas services and consumer retails).
 Due diligence agreement assessment
 Evaluate the internal controls and preparing the internal policies and procedures for several entities for all cycles.

Major clients and portfolios:

 Hewa General Contracting Company/Erbi.
 OilServ Holding Company/Erbil
 MI for Oil field services/ Erbil
 Standard Chartered Bank- Jordan
 British American Tobacco
 Zain Africa (Due diligence)/ Bahrain
 Performance Drilling Company/Erbil
 Coca Cola / Erbil & Jordan
 IRC Erbil, CARE Jordan, UNHCR Iraq, Save the children Iraq - NGO

Tasks & duties:
 Running the Audit and Accounting line of service in addition to administrating the business operations of PwC’s office in Erbil-Kurdistan :
 Handling external Audit and Accounting engagements by acting as team and engagement leader (in both Jordan and Iraq) and performing the following:
- Planning the team members’ and clients’ visits;
- Reviewing the work of and supervising the team members;
- Meeting with clients to discuss the results of the audit;
- Advice clients on local laws and regulation requirements in addition to other tax matters;
- Recommend to the clients the best practice on their internal structure, internal controls and procedures
- Reporting to PwC Engagement Leaders regarding the audit work and issues found;
- Finalizing the audit reports;
- Preparing a full set of financial statements that are in compliance with IFRS including the balance sheet, income statements, cash flows, changes in equity and required disclosures;
- Acting as Financial Manager in some clients to manage the overall finance function within the company, this included (but not limited to):
 Review Company’s chart of account and advice on it.
 Review the current accounting policies and develop them to be in compliance with the Industry and IFRS requirements.
 Review the accounting process and identify the main weaknesses related to segregation of duties, custody of the asset and proper recording and posting to the systems such as (QuickBooks, Great Plains, Oracle and others).
 Reconcile the modules balances with general ledger.
 Perform bank reconciliation
 Perform reconciliations with major receivables and suppliers and prepare an aging for the balances related to both accounts.
 Prepare fixed assets register with monthly calculation of depreciation.
 Prepare a preliminary balance sheet and income statement for the company
 Perform consolidations for the companies within the group.
 Prepare a full set of financial statements that are in compliance with IFRS.
 Perform analysis over the major variances and changes incurred between the two presented periods.

- Ensure Internal Controls are implemented and are properly followed across all functions within the Company.
- Advise client on many accounting and managerial matters such as Company’s structure, department’s main roles and responsibilities, working capital management, cash flow preparation and management, supervise the yearend closing process and preparing the trial balance and financial
reports for management purposes.
- Appraising the team and providing timely feedbacks;
- Training professional staff on different matter either through on-job training or through training courses and presentations, i.e. PwC audit methodology, accounting and auditing software, the use of IFRS and explaining accounting issues through referencing to IFRS.
- Review the compliance with the local laws and regulation and the Company’s internal policies and procedures.

I was in-charge of various engagements in different sectors such as Banking, Manufacturing, insurance Governmental, Trading, Hospitality, Retail, and other industries, in addition to special assignments in the following areas:
 Financial review and compliance with IFRS
 Financial review and conversion to IFRS
 Due Diligence, mergers and acquisitions
 Forensic Investigation Services
 Compilation of the Financial Statements
 Manufacturing Company’s Inventory costing review

Major clients and portfolios:

 JV oil Manufacturing- Jordan
 Housing Bank- Jordan
 HSBC- Jordan
 Zara Holding Investing Group- Jordan
 Emirate Insurance Company
 Libyan Investments Authority- Libya
 Jordan Aviation Airlines
 Libyan Foreign Bank- Libya
 Coca Cola- Jordan
 NEPCO - Jordan.
 Meridian Hotel Jordan.

Tasks & duties:
 Planning of external audit assignments with significant involvement in areas related to the assessment of engagement and business risks;
 Understand and prepare a narrative description of the business’ main cycles such as cash, revenue, payroll, purchases, inventory, credit facilities, treasury and customer operations;
 Designing and performing test of controls;
 Assessing the effectiveness of internal control procedures;
 Preparing internal control weakness report along with recommendations and communicate it to the client’s management;
 Designing and performing substantive audit procedures;
 Performing analytical and testing procedures to identify the reasonableness of financial statements’ information;
 Preparing full set of financial statements in accordance with IFRS;
 Supervising audit tasks performed by professional staff to ensure high quality deliverables, accuracy, compliance with IFRS and application of Ernst & Young's audit approach;
 Reporting to Managers and Partners of the engagement;
 Following up on major issues with clients; and
 Preparing a presentation for the audit committee with respect to audit issues and other matters noted during the course of our work.