FROM THE CEO ’ S DESK
The calendar year is almost over, with less than three months
to conclude the business of the year.
We are delighted to announce that theWorld Economic Forum
has once again ranked South Africa number one for the
strength of its auditing and reporting standards for six years in
a row. The ranking brings confidence to local and foreign
investors that they can trust and rely on our auditing strength,
despite the economic meltdown and other challenges that the
country and the auditing profession have been experiencing.
There have been a lot of comments in themedia in the past few
weeks, with the profession being criticised for lack of
transformation and growth. However, as you might have seen
in our annual report, the number of registered auditors has
been growing steadily over the past few years and the number
of black registered auditors, specifically, has grown by almost
12% in the last decade.
Transformation is not the responsibility of only the IRBA, but it
is for all of us to make sure that the profession transforms and
grows. The IRBA, through the Audit Development
Programme, will now have direct influence and interaction with
registered candidate auditors, which will also help us to drive
the transformation of the profession. It will take each one of us
in the profession to do the right thing to be able to make the
change that we would like to see in our profession.
I have just completed our annual roadshows for this year. In
total, the directors and I visited 17 centres across the country
and interacted with more than 1,000 registered auditors.
Thank you all for taking the time to come and meet with us and
share your concerns.
Allowme to share a few insights from the roadshows.
We shared our strategy and the developments in the
profession since our last roadshows in 2013. The most
important thing to keep in mind is that the world is changing
and the profession and regulation need to keep up with, and
respond to, these changes.
This year we also brought on board one of our stakeholders,
the Competition Commission, to speak to auditors about
competition laws and what auditors can look out for when they
suspect that competition laws are being contravened. Their
presentations also linked the importance of being aware that
clients could be involved in anticompetitive activities and the
risk factors that auditors should be alert to.
Other important issues to take away included how to raise the
profile and value of audit and the need to address issues that
are peculiar to small andmediumpractices.
Thank you to all who gave us feedback, including Robert
Jewell, who wrote:
“Dear all at the IRBA. Thank you for a most inspiring event
today in Pretoria. It has given me more reasons to build a top-
quality audit practice knowing what a positive impact we make
on our society and how our work benefits communities. I will be
taking this message to market when we present some of the
events we are planning to hold for our current and future
clients. We are proud to bemembers of the IRBA.”
It will take each one of us speaking highly of the profession to
make it attractive and more appealing to young professionals
so they can aspire to be part of it.
Let our global ranking be an inspiration to all of us to embrace
the changes and challenges of our profession, and to work
together to strengthen the institutions and professions that
must contribute to improving the economy and the country. It is
especially in difficult times and economic crises that we need
to embrace themettle.
Bernard Peter Agulhas
Chief Executive Officer
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Issue 31 July - September 2015
