As professional services organisations go in the normally staid world of accounting, CPA Australia certainly generates a fair bit of publicity - although, of late, not all of it is good.

It has spent millions promoting itself - and its chief executive Alex Malley - but has left many members seething in the process.

While a growing number of CPA's rank and file say those at the top of their organisation are grossly overpaid, there are also new concerns that CPA's foray into financial advice has turned out to be a giant money pit, chewing up money intended for the professional development of members.

At the centre of this rancour is Mr Malley, who could hardly be said to be your typical accountant.

He embraces a degree of celebrity not normally associated with the dour world of accelerated depreciation and quarterly business activity statements.

For disaffected members, the question is who is getting the biggest bang for their buck from the millions of dollars in professional subscriptions shelled out each year.

The CPA has spent more than $60 million on marketing over the past two years, much of it focussed on promoting Mr Malley himself.

There is Mr Malley's eponymous TV program "In conversation with Alex Malley" on the Nine Network - which provides insights from the likes of astronaut Andy Thomas, Nine journalist Peter Overton, celebrity violinist Andre Rieu and actor Henry Winkler - a.k.a. Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli in the 70s sitcom "Happy Days".

There is a book - pitched between autobiography and advice - called "The Naked CEO" and even a tram with Mr Malley's beaming visage that plies its trade along Melbourne's leafy boulevards.

The CPA's marketing budget includes sponsoring the Australian Open and the National Basketball League, where one of the CPA's directors, Graeme Wade, is the chairman of the NBL board.

The CPA says its NBL deal was an arms' length transaction and all of the appropriate conflict of interest declarations were made.

It maintains the marketing spend has attracted tens of thousands of new members internationally.

Lack of transparency fuels anger

But not everyone's happy, including Roger Juchau, who has been in the CPA since 1958.

"I would say that the jury amongst my colleagues, that I see in the financial sector here in NSW, is that they are extremely concerned about the way the promotion of the CPA is going, particularly as it's channelled through the chief executive, Alex Malley," he said.

CPA Australia promotional spending includes a TV program, a book and a tram featuring CEO Alex Malley. ( Supplied: CPA Australia )

Alex Malley declined the ABC's invitation to comment on the questions being raised by his members.

About 18 months ago an accountant from the New South Wales town of Armidale, Brett Stevenson, started asking how the CPA spends its money.

He wanted to know how much those at the top get paid.

"They should disclose it, we're a membership organisation, there's no reason for them not to," he said.

He said he has been bullied and intimidated after the CPA warned its members about him in an email, when he was granted access to a database of members' contact details.

"They've isolated me, they've regarded me as a rogue member, when really the issues are very significant," he said.

"I feel anger quite frankly," he said.

The CPA said, in a statement, that the allegation of bullying by Mr Stevenson is baseless.

"We had a duty of care to alert our global membership to the circumstances around their personal information being disclosed, and at no stage was the member who requested the register named," the organisation responded.

Accountants pay fees of up to $720 a year, in return for CPA Australia's professional accreditation.

Sorry, this video has expired Claims that the CPA top brass are overpaid and under-performing. ( Liz Hobday )

They also sign up for courses and conferences, which cost many times more, but are seen as a necessary investment.

For a growing number of the 160,000 CPA members, it just does not add up.

The ABC has spoken to a number of former CPA directors, and the talk is mutinous. They do not want to be identified, but said they are disgusted with the CPA's leadership and its lack of transparency.

So how did it come to this? CPA board members used to work for free, or for a stipend paid straight to their employer.

CPA Australia AGM shifted to Singapore

The CPA's constitution was changed by a series of special resolutions of members.

CPA members could no longer directly elect the board. Directors' terms could be extended beyond a six-year maximum. Their pay, and that of key executives, went through the roof.

"It's excessive, it's scandalous, beyond even the CEO of Australia Post," Mr Stevenson said.

The current board and key executives are together paid $5.5 million a year.

With limitations on directors' salaries, it leaves the CPA's three top executives, Mr Malley, chief operating officer Jeff Hughes and company secretary Adam Awty, with a share of at least $3.8 million a year.

But there is no disclosure on how that money is divided up.

"We hold ourselves out to be the standard bearers and the standard setters, and the makers of the rules for good accounting, and yet here we are barely complying with the minimum," Mr Stevenson said.

"To me it's hypocrisy writ large."

The CPA insists its pay is appropriate and in line with similar organisations.

This year CPA Australia's AGM was moved from Melbourne to Singapore. Critics claim the move was to avoid hard questions, but the CPA says the move was to better serve its international members.

At the AGM, CPA Australia chairman Tyrone Carlin was repeatedly asked to reveal the company's executive pay. He did not answer but, instead, he promised consultation and consideration of a new pay disclosure model.

"There is a sense that more disclosure is desirable, and we see that and we hear that feedback from members," Mr Carlin told the meeting.

"We're going to look very carefully at this ... the board will deliberate very carefully on this."

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New business propped up by members' funds

In 2015, amid the fallout from the big banks' financial advice scandal, the CPA moved into the market for independent financial advice with a new subsidiary, CPA Australia Advice.

The CPA has loaned its advice arm more than $5 million. But in the CPA's last annual report it is almost impossible to tell how that money is being spent.

"All they say is that it will be repaid in the long term, it's an interest-free loan," said Mr Stevenson.

"It's just like this subsidiary we know very little about."

So far, only 19 advisors have joined CPA Australia Advice.

The CPA said it is investing in its new business, and it is too early for reports on its performance.

That performance, and that of the CPA's leadership, continues to raise fresh questions for disillusioned CPA members.