The South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) has commended KPMG SA for its announcement that it will no longer offer non-audit-related services to its JSE listed clients.

This is according to Shahied Daniels, Chief Executive at SAIPA. “We applaud the firm for making this difficult decision in the best interest of the public and contributing to the process of restoring confidence in the accountancy profession,” he says.

Daniels also complimented KPMG Chairman Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu and CEO Ignatius Sehoole on their initiative. “Professor Nkuhlu promoted this concept of separating audit and non-audit functions, at SAIPA’s inaugural Accounting iNdaba in 2019, and his belief that the profession needs to be more public-centric, less client-centric,” he says.

Restoring confidence
Daniels believes that restoring confidence in the profession is a complex process that is still in its early stages. Accountancy – the body of duties accountants perform – has evolved into many specialised disciplines. Currently, auditing is the one under the greatest pressure to regain public trust. However, the accounting profession, a subset of accountancy, also needs to contribute to that goal.

The process should start with the preparers of financial statements and the CFO, extend to executive management, the audit and risk committees and internal auditors, and culminate with the external auditors. All these stakeholders must work as a collective and take full responsibility for the outcome of the audit opinion.

“So, it is not just one party working to restore confidence in the profession,” says Daniels. “It must be a unified progression with professional accountancy organisations, like SAIPA, playing a leading role.”

Separation of concerns
Daniels also believes that KPMG is right to separate its non-audit-related services from the auditing function provided to its listed clients because of developments in the industry.

Business advisory is rapidly evolving to become a unique and specialised competency within the accountancy stable. So much so that SAIPA has established a dedicated Centre of Business Advisory (CoBA) to equip the Professional Accountant (SA) to offer these advanced solutions to clients and employers.

“Business advisory services are becoming so common in organisations that it will soon be difficult for auditors to avoid giving assurance on their own firm’s work,” says Daniels. The Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants lists self-review as one of the main threats that accountants and auditors face.

Positive steps forward
Professional accountancy bodies are collaborating on several initiatives to ensure accountancy regains the unquestioned respect it once enjoyed.

One such initiative is the drive to encourage accounting firms, especially the larger ones, to adopt transparency reporting. While these disclosures are often internal, making them public would provide stakeholders with assurance of a firm’s integrity.

Another is that all professional bodies are taking a collective stand to ensure that accountants disqualified from one body can no longer seek membership with another, as was the case in the past.

Conclusion
Daniels encourages all firms and leaders in the accountancy profession to follow KPMG in its pursuit of restoring trust and confidence in the profession. “SAIPA will continue to drive this essential initiative and supports KPMG or any other company that commits to its achievement,” says Daniels.
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ENDS
 
MEDIA CONTACT: Stephné du Toit, 084 587 9933, stephne@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za 
For more information on SAIPA please visit:
Website: www.saipa.co.za
Twitter: @SAIPAcomms
LinkedIn: South African Institute of Professional Accountants Company
Facebook: South African Institute of Professional Accountants

Project Achiever, a specialised preparatory course run by the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA), is helping a greater number of applicants pass the body’s Professional Evaluation (PE). More importantly, it’s also producing the calibre of accountants that practices, businesses and government entities are calling out for.

“Although we started Project Achiever to boost PE pass rates, our methodology intentionally elevates the way participants think about business problems,” says Sechaba Motaung, Professional Education Manager at the Institute. The long-lasting effects of this training benefits, not just the new accountant personally, but also their future clients or employers.

Past graduate Tebello Motsoene, agrees. “I gained more knowledge from Project Achiever than my degree,” she says. As a result, she is now a full SAIPA member and holds the Institute’s official designation of Professional Accountant (SA).

How it works
According to Delouise van der Westhuizen, Training and Assessment Manager at the Institute, attendees of the course are not rated on right or wrong answers but on the approach they take to solving business problems.

Project Achiever is presented in a virtual classroom every Saturday over a six-month period. The first hour-and-a-half session offers instruction on the course’s content. This is followed by a four-hour breakaway session in which participants are divided into groups and given a business scenario to solve. During this time, facilitators oversee student participation.

The remainder of the time is spent presenting their solutions, a duty everyone will eventually perform. Over the course of the day, they are exposed to problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration, creative thinking, communication and other competencies seldom taught in academia.

Facilitator Nqobani Mzizi, who graduated from the course in 2016, believes this form of experiential training is missing in schools and tertiary institutions. “It changed the way I think and, by extension, my life,” he says.

The results
Project Achiever graduates are typically the highest scoring candidates in SAIPA’s PE and usually dominate the top three performer spots. This serves to illustrate the efficacy of the course’s approach.

“Once our students have learned to integrate their academic and practical training, and think holistically about business problems, they are more than ready to take the PE with confidence,”  says van der Westhuizen.

The course is also not exclusive to SAIPA trainees. Anyone with a SAIPA approved degree and a verifiable record of six years of work experience as an accountant is welcome to attend Project Achiever. At the same time, they can register for the SAIPA PE and continue their career as a fully qualified Professional Accountant (SA), an NQF Level 8 qualification equivalent to an Honours degree.

“Many of our past students have qualified under the Recognition of Prior Learning track,” says Motaung.

Registration
Those who qualify to attend this year’s upcoming Project Achiever course should register before 14th February 2021. Interested parties can find the full details on SAIPA’s web site.

“I would also encourage employers to send their qualifying candidates on the course and ensure they become professionalised,” says van der Westhuizen. “This will help their accountants achieve their maximum potential much sooner.”

ENDS
 
MEDIA CONTACT: Stephné du Toit, 084 587 9933, stephne@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za 
For more information on SAIPA please visit:
Website: www.saipa.co.za
Twitter: @SAIPAcomms
LinkedIn: South African Institute of Professional Accountants Company
Facebook: South African Institute of Professional Accountants

Building an ample workforce of South African accountancy professionals is pointless if they are not equipped with future-ready competencies.

“The accountancy community needs to start thinking about the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how technology is changing the profession,” says Professor Rashied Small, CoFE Executive at the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA).

According to him, the main effect is that those in the profession will move from producing information to utilising it effectively in business decision-making.

“It, therefore, becomes essential that advanced initial and continuing professional development programmes be designed to prepare them for this new reality,” says Professor Small. This is the function of SAIPA’s Centre of Future Excellence (CoFE), which has developed its Competency Framework around this need.

Accounting technician
Typically, accounting technicians provide support services to professional accountants and the accountancy functions. Their duties include, among others, cash management, capturing financial records, recording payments and expenses, and compiling reports for accountants.

“As their work is taken over by AI and robotic process automation, or RPA, accounting technicians will assume the more critical functions of validating source data and investigating information anomalies,” says Professor Small.

Their main activities will be data mining and assuring the integrity of financial and business data flowing through the enterprise. To achieve their objectives, they will interact with various stakeholders, including operational managers, customers and suppliers, and technology providers, while reporting their findings to the professional accountant.

Professional accountant
Professional accountants currently maintain and manage an organisation’s financial function. They provide services around standards-driven financial reporting and accountancy practices and assure the accuracy of financial statements and the legal compliance of accountancy records.

Likewise, many of their traditional technical duties will be automated as 4IR principles immerse commerce and industry. Inevitably, they will transition to the role of strategic business advisor, creating valuable insights and foresight for organisations from financial and business data.
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“Their focus will be on interpreting, disseminating and monetising information produced throughout accountancy and business processes to the benefit of their corporate leadership,” says Professor Small.

Embracing technology
Deploying more accountants with legacy training will not serve the needs of the growing number of technology-driven businesses. Rather, professional development must focus on the competencies that will help accountants transition to their new advisory role.

Accounting technicians must also be given the opportunity to acquire the skills that will enable their role as corporate data custodians.

Accountancy professionals can also no longer limit themselves exclusively to financial matters. Rather, they must add value throughout the business ecosystem, including its supply chain and value chain.
“Professional bodies, accountants and auditors who continue to focus on compliance will be nothing but compliance officers, which will add no real value to organisations seeking to leverage their data investment,” warns Professor Small.

Cybernetically enhanced accountants
Professor Small says that SAIPA has accepted the inevitable changes facing the accountancy profession. Instead of fighting to preserve the traditional accountancy model or competing against technology, the Institute intends to pioneer the evolution of the profession in the 4IR era.

“We must fuse accountancy with technology if we wish to remain relevant in this new world,” he concludes.
 
ENDS
 
MEDIA CONTACT: Stephné du Toit, 084 587 9933, stephne@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za 
For more information on SAIPA please visit:
Website: www.saipa.co.za
Twitter: @SAIPAcomms
LinkedIn: South African Institute of Professional Accountants Company
Facebook: South African Institute of Professional Accountants