Author: Bongani Coka, CE of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA)
 
A good reputation is hard to build, but can be destroyed overnight. This is particularly true of the accountancy and audit profession, which lives off its credibility. Distrust has recently become a major issue, especially with the recent public backlash experienced by politically implicated persons in the accounting profession.
 
Accountants need to keep in mind that establishing trust requires more than just honesty: it requires the ability to practice sound moral values. Major drivers of trust are openness, competence, benevolence and integrity.
 
Openness
The quality of ‘openness’ has a distinct ethical undertone as the disclosure of information can assist those who are affected by the information to either advance or protect their interests.
 
Failure to disclose such information effectively bars those affected by it from enhancing or protecting their interests. Consequently, a lack of openness on the side of a professional accountant will be perceived as unfair or unethical by their clients and other key stakeholders, which in turn will undermine public perceptions of the trustworthiness of the professionals.
 
Competence
Due to the recent spate of scandals, the South African public now question accountants’ ability to act in a manner consistent with the code of ethics for accountants and their competency to provide a quality service with the required skill.
 
A professional accountant may not mislead his employer or client as to his level of expertise or experience. Where appropriate, clients or employers must be notified of any limitations that the professional accountant may have.
 
In addition, Section 130 of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants requires a professional accountant to maintain professional knowledge and skill at a level required to ensure that a client or employer receives a competent professional service based on current developments in practice, legislation and techniques; and act diligently and in accordance with the applicable technical and professional standards.
 
Professional accountants are expected to employ an inquiring mind to their work founded on the basis of their knowledge of the organisations’ financials. Their training in accounting enables them to adopt a pragmatic and objective approach to solving issues. Using their skills and intimate understanding of the organisation and the environment in which it operates, professional accountants in business must ask challenging questions.
 
They are also the front runners when it comes to upholding the quality of financial reporting and providing the broader public with reliable financial information.  Regardless of the level of assurance, the public assume that due diligence was taken into account when the professional accountant compiled the financial statements.
 
Benevolence
Trust for a professional accountant’s client involves having confidence that they will act in their best interest or refrain from taking advantage of them. The possibility that they might break this confidence introduces the element of risk, with a dash of fear and anxiety peppered into the mix.
 
The greater the perceived risk, the harder it may be for the client to trust their accountant.
 
Any debacle in the accounting profession raises the question of ethical behaviour and shines the spotlight on the responsibility of the professional accountant to maintain the balance between serving the public interest and that of their client.
 
Professional Accounting Organisations (PAO) accredited by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) must be pro-active in their approach to any matter that may bring their institutes into disrepute as a result of the conduct of their members.
 
Random checks and balances must be conducted on PAO members to ensure that they remain in good standing and a PAO should encourage the public to lay a complaint for investigation should they experience misconduct or unprofessional behaviour from any PAO member.
 
Integrity
The link between integrity and ethics is so intimate that the two concepts are often used as synonyms.
 
In terms of section 110 of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, obligation is imposed on all professional accountants to be straightforward and honest in all professional and business relationships. Integrity also implies fair dealings and truthfulness.

In conclusion, gaining clients and public trust by a professional accountant requires openness, having the competence and consideration of what clients say is important to them, and making sure they provide that to the satisfaction of a client in an ethical manner.

Trustworthiness is within our sphere of control, and consequently it is something that can be deliberately changed or cultivated. As a profession we are impacted by trust, let us try to restore it.
 
Photo caption: Bongani Coka
​
ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za  
 
For more information on SAIPA please visit:
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Twitter: @SAIPAcomms
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Author: Bongani Coka, Chief Executive of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA)
 
With the Chinese economy slowing, commodity prices falling and the global economy stagnating, worldwide investment opportunities are scarce. But the last decade has seen a rising wave of optimism over Africa’s growth potential, and global investors are keen to uncover its riches. To realise its prosperity, Africa must first confront the obstacles that prevent investors from committing themselves.
 
Accountants have a central role to play in confronting these obstacles and ensuring the development of Africa.
 
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that although medium term growth prospects in Africa remains favourable, substantial improvement is required in the recalibration of fiscal policy (including the efficient use of national budgets), better domestic revenue mobilisation, and improving and prioritising the quality and efficiency of public investment.
 
South Africa is in the green because our fiscal policy is sound. We just need to keep our budget in check to ensure government debt remains a low percentage of GDP. Our revenue is also being judiciously invested in infrastructure, with the top five government priorities being healthcare for all, better education, enhanced crime prevention, rural development, and job creation. In South Africa, public investment is lively, with the government spending a fair amount of its budget on social services and public infrastructure.
 
However, we also face growth challenges.
 
Corruption – real or perceived – is a threat to the continent’s development. Additionally, in South Africa, unemployment continues to be unacceptably high, not for lack of jobs but rather a skills shortage in specific sectors from which the field of accounting is not exempt.
 
As for poverty and inequality, financial and human resources must be effectively deployed to address the following challenges, intimately linked to both conditions: optimising Africa’s natural resources, tackling illicit financial flows, increasing effectiveness of public expenditure, and attracting private funding. This is a daunting task if a country lacks the requisite skills to mobilise its resources.
 
In spite of this, South Africa is well positioned to spearhead growth in Africa as envisioned by the IMF.
 
Good resource management is one of the most effective ways to alleviate poverty. But it requires that those charged with the responsibility have the following core skills: good understanding of ethics and governance, good financial management, and transparency and accountability.
 
A true accountant must have all these competencies. If even one is missing, they cannot prudently manage scarce resources, and poverty alleviation initiatives will suffer. In addition, as the people responsible for preparing information, auditing, consulting and advising, accountants are essential to the success of both the public and private sector in Africa. Weighty decisions are taken on their advice or the management information they prepare.
 
It’s in the context of these opportunities and challenges that the accountant becomes a growth enabler. At the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA), we try to counter these challenges by emphasising competency-based training, so that after students pass our professional evaluation exam, they are employable. They possess not just theoretical understanding but also the capability to solve real world problems as a practitioner, and so become go-to business advisers.
 
Skills gaps exist in both the private sector and in government, particularly at the local government level. It is for this reason that SAIPA places a special focus on equipping the big metros to train students so they can do their articles in the public sector. For municipalities to be awarded a clean audit by the Auditor General’s office, they need highly skilled professional accountants who perform their duties without fear or favour. It’s encouraging that in the future, all municipal managers will have to earn a special qualification before being appointed to that position. Clean government starts with top-level leaders.
 
Accountants are the champions of right record and should be beyond reproach. To continually earn this trust accountants must work tirelessly to maintain a faultless reputation and root out bad elements.
 
Solutions such as the reversal of illicit financial flows, attraction of foreign direct investment, growth and development of the SME sector, and enhancement of the effectiveness of foreign aid, all depend on suitably qualified and regulated accountants.
 
The main challenge facing the accountancy profession on the African continent and in South Africa is capacity building. Not only increasing the amount of available accountants, but elevating professionals to hold accountability, transparency, and good governance in highest regard.
 
Strengthening the accounting profession and the public financial management capability are critical to this end. It takes strong, ongoing collaborative effort between all the stakeholders – academics, business, government, students and parents, accountants, and professional bodies that emphasise continuous professional growth, research and development, and compliance with best practice.
 
Currently, more than 46% of African countries do not have a professional accounting organisation. Those that do are not yet functioning according to best practice.
 
Ultimately, the role of the accountant is to provide indisputable financial structure and processes, unquestionable record of transaction, and incontestable strategic intelligence. When we can do this at scale, we will pave the way for investor confidence.
 
Accountants therefore control the floodgates of prosperity in Africa, but it is by our integrity and effort that we earn the right to open them.
 
PHOTO CAPTION: Bongani Coka, Chief Executive of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA)

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@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

The future bodes well for the South African accountancy profession as the top six learners achieved an average of more than 90% at the National Accounting Olympiad run by the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA). Interestingly, the six came from four different provinces with the top pupil coming from KwaZulu Natal.
 
Muza­ar Ahmed Malani from the Orient Islamic School in Durban, achieved the highest score, followed by Rhulani Ndlala from Merensky High School in Tzaneen and Simonè Balt from Hoërskool Linden, in Johannesburg. 
 
“As the South African Institute of Professional Accountants we are pleased with the results of the National Accounting Olympiad because they continue to show that there are pockets of excellence in our schools and that public schools continue to perform on par with private schools. This is an encouraging sign for the future of the Accountancy profession,” says Bongani Coka, the Chief Executive at SAIPA.
 
The top three learners were followed by three learners who scored the same mark, namely;
 
- Liam Roubach from De Kuilen High School in Cape Town.
- Husnaa Motala, a pupil at Westville Girls High School, in Westville.
- Raadiyyah Seedat from the Lenasia Muslim School in Lenasia. 
The annual Olympiad is open to all Grade 12 pupils in public and private schools studying Accountancy or Mathematics and aims to increase awareness among them of the importance of accounting to the South African economy, as well as the range of career opportunities available to them.
 
The competition consists of two rounds, each consisting of a two-hour examination. The first round of 2016, written in May, saw 3510 pupils from 310 schools competing. A total of 980 learners, consisting of the top three learners in every region, qualified to enter the second round that took place on 27 July. 
 
“One of our key strategic objectives as the South African Institute of Professional Accountants is grow and transform the industry and the NAO provides us one of the platforms to do this in a sustainable way by investing in young talent. Next year we aim to raise the bar in terms of the number of high school students that we touch with the Olympiad and as such we will revamp the format to encourage more participation and we will work more closely with the Department of Basic Education,” adds Coka.
 
The final round required candidates to deal with calculations, case studies, scenarios, financial statements, recording and posting procedures and more.
 
Zobuzwe Ngobese Marketing and Communication Executive at SAIPA says those who achieved 65% or more during the first round of the Olympiad and qualified for the second round also received a printed exam study guide sponsored by Sage One, which also provided learners with valuable career and bursary information.
 
“The exam guide is curriculum based and will therefore help learners to prepare for their matric accountancy exams later in the year. More importantly, as SAIPA we have been using the results of the Olympiad to also assist the poor performing schools because we do not only focus on those learners who have done well – our members who are professional accountants – have been using their time to provide extra classes to the struggling learners,” explains Ngobese.
 
The competition has been running since 2002, with SAIPA’s focus being to provide papers and literature that can be used by all South African students, including those for whom English is a second language. It is an approach designed to lead to the abstract, higher order thinking required to solve problems – exactly the kind of issues accountants face in real life.
 
The national and provincial winners will be honoured at a formal National Gala Awards Evening on the 12th of October.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@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

Author: Bongani Coka, Chief Executive of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants
 
Nelson Mandela was clear that the purpose of living was to make a difference in the lives of others and driving positive change in the country is the best way to truly honor his legacy.
Against this backdrop I want to motivate South African business, our members and the country’s citizens at large to give serious thought as to how they want to mark 18 July.
 
In my view, we can best achieve this by looking at what the national imperatives are and then consider how we can use our special skills to further those imperatives. By taking this approach, our individual efforts are multiplied by the work others are doing, and we are using our limited resources most intelligently.
 
The first point of call should be to interrogate the National Development Plan (NDP) and the information put out by Stats SA. That way, companies and individuals can see what the key levers for driving social change are. The vital second step is to look at how to bring one’s particular skills to bear on the identified challenges.
 
Passing on skills
For Professional Accountants, the decision is relatively easy. Maths and Accounting are generally recognised to be critical in creating a vibrant economy—but the educational system remains unable to produce them. In 2015, for example 140 474 pupils wrote Accounting and only 59.6 percent of them were able to achieve a score of 30 percent or above.
 
Surely we should be directing our efforts towards growing the pipeline of talented young people who choose accounting as a career. By passing on skills or even inspiring a young person to take a particular path, we can change his or her life and contribute to the country’s transformation. This is a better use of an accountant’s time than, say, painting a school, I believe.
 
For this reason, donating time is inherently more valuable over the long term than money or things, important as these are. Thus, for example, a Professional Accountant could consider delivering a lecture or course of lectures to learners at a particular school, and leaving behind a set of notes or some software for educator to use.
 
Further, I’d like to encourage members of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) to look beyond just one day, and treat 18 July to 17 August 2016 as Mandela Month to create opportunities for more ambitious projects that might include some mentoring as well.
 
Carefully thought-out initiatives can help improve BEE scores but, even more importantly, they can improve the image of the profession within the broader community. This has many positive benefits—it will help to increase the number of people wanting to enter that profession, and it will also serve to strengthen its “social licence” by demonstrating that it acknowledges its responsibilities to the broader stakeholder community.
 
Let’s use Mandela Day or, even better, Mandela Month, as a way to share our professional skills in the most effective way to drive lasting, wide-reaching and sustainable social change. Mandela was not just a man of words—he was an action man who wanted results. That’s the best way to honour his memory.
 
National Accounting Olympiad
One of SAIPA’s initiatives include its annual National Accounting Olympiad, which aims to make Accounting a preferred subject choice to all students, and to promote the option of professional accountancy as a sound choice for further study and the pathway towards a financially and personally rewarding entry into employment.
 
Teachers are encouraged to invite Grade 12 accounting learners who wish to follow a B.COM degree in Accounting as further study to enter for the competition
 
The first round of the 2016 competition is scheduled for May at the learners’ respective schools. All learners who qualify for the final round will be invited to participate in the final round on 27 July. The final round will determine provincial and national winners in two streams: government and private schools.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@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

Bongani Coka has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA) with effect from 1 July 2016.
 
Coka most recently fulfilled the role of CEO at Productivity SA for five years, after having served as the organisation’s CFO for 10 years. His professional experience also includes 16 years in management, 10 years tutoring in tax and accounting and two years of drafting Accounting training material experience.
 
“I accepted this position because I believe that SAIPA’s role is critical for the sustainability of small to medium enterprises, which I am extremely passionate about,” says Coka.
 
“SAIPA members are ideally positioned to act as trusted partners offering a range of business advisory services, particularly to the small business sector-the supposed engine of the SA economy. Our role is to help the engine fire on all cylinders by helping to unlock the potential of the small business sector and ensuring their sustainability”.
 
Coka believes that while accounting professionals have to move with the times and stay up-to-date, the profession is unlikely to be redundant anytime soon. The skills used by accountants to record, classify, interpret, and communicate the financial information about an entity can be applied to any entity in any field, industry or sector.
 
The transferability of accountancy skills has enabled Coka to work across different sectors, including working for a non-profit organisation, a state owned enterprise, and a public entity. 

 
“Mr Coka’s proficiency in the fields of finance and accounting, combined with his passion for education and small enterprises, will serve well in achieving the strategic objectives of SAIPA,” says Cindy Dibete, chairman of the SAIPA board. “Mr Coka is known as an inspirational leader who shows empathy, and as a visionary who is decisive and courageous.”
 
After earning a Bachelor of Accounting Science from the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 1988, and completing his articles at Deloitte and Touché, Coka also earned from UNISA his Bachelor of Accounting Science Honours in 1994.. Coka’s other qualifications include a Higher Diploma in Tax Law from the former Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), as well as the designation as Associate General Accountant, both earned in 1998.
 
Further adding to Coka’s relevant experience is previous board memberships including chairman of the board of the Productivity South Africa Pension Fund Committee, board Secretary General of Pan African Productivity Association, and committee member of both the Work Place Challenge Joint Committee, and the Social Plan Joint Committee. Coka also serves in the Audit Committee of his church.
 
Born on 8 January 1960 and raised in Vosloorus in the east of Johannesburg, Coka remembers being in the class with the first learners to matriculate from the first township High School in 1980. “We had to work harder as the teachers were inexperienced and resources were limited.”
 
This set the tone for the rest of Coka’s path of education. He obtained all his tertiary qualifications through correspondence, relying heavily on his discipline, independence, and determination.
 
Coka is married with two children, and as part of his community participation assists an orphanage and a school in the South of Johannesburg as part of his community participation and is also mentor and counsel to students.
 
Through his keen interest in reading empowering books and attending football matches Coka stays inspired to be an advocate of continuous improvement. He believes that asking the right questions is the key to diagnosing a problem, and that it enables one to better understand the desires, beliefs, actions, and wants of the others.
 
ENDS
 
MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@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