By
Ms Sibongile Nkomo MP
National Assembly
Honourable Speaker,
Despite South Africa having recently been ranked #1 in the world for the implementation and monitoring of auditing standards, our global competitiveness remains in steady decline!
It is therefore imperative that our professional regulatory bodies such as the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors not only deliver world class training, regulation and policy direction for prospective auditors but also for the profession as a whole.
South Africa, like many other countries, has the scourge of corruption continuously assailing our public services sector. One could also easily say that white collar fraud and corruption are endemic and frequently arise in both our public and private sectors.
The public sector must however, and because of its use of taxpayers’ monies, bear our greatest scrutiny and responsibility. It is also this sector that is dismally failing the people of South Africa. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure, fraud and corruption must be rooted out at its source and this is where our auditing profession bears grave responsibility.
Young auditing professionals must be trained in ‘real needs’ auditing in order to be able to competently and effectively deal with the myriad challenges they will face and so that they are ‘relevant’ in practice.
Standardized and regulated forms of candidate auditor training is urgently required and this is what this Bill in part speaks to, as currently candidate auditors are unregulated and not subject to any form of disciplinary action by the profession. Regulation of Candidate Auditors will therefore create a greater measure of public protection and will now be regulated by the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors(IRBA).
The specialist training that candidate auditors will now undergo will also provide them with the tools, skills and experience necessary to have successful careers in the profession and it is for this reason and those as enunciated above that we support this Bill.
I thank you.
Hon SJ Nkomo, MP