IRBA appoints Ms Ntlambi Gulwa as Director: Inspections

 Johannesburg, Monday, October 31, 2022 – The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) has appointed Ntlambi Gulwa as Director: Inspections from 1 November 2022. Ms Gulwa is a CA(SA) and a Registered Auditor (RA) with 16 years of experience in both private and public sectors, mainly in the auditing profession. The inspections’ function of the IRBA is key to its statutory mandate, as this is the unit that monitors audit quality at firms and on audit engagements.

Ms Gulwa joined the IRBA in 2016 as an inspector. She was shortly thereafter promoted to Team Leader: Inspections, responsible for providing leadership, mentoring; and ensuring that inspections of high quality are performed and that quality reports are issued - a role she has fulfilled since 2018. In March 2021, Ms Gulwa took up her current role in an Acting capacity to replace Mr Nagy who had taken up the Acting CEO role at that time. Following his recent appointment in a permanent capacity as CEO, recruitment began immediately to fill the Director: Inspections role.

Says Imre Nagy, CEO of IRBA: “Ms Gulwa performed well as an Acting Director and has guided the inspections team for more than 18 months at a critical time for the IRBA when the department was implementing a new inspections cycle (8th Inspections Cycle) including several proactive initiatives to align with the IRBA’s five-year refocused strategy and enhanced efforts to enhance audit quality in the profession. I have no doubt that she’s the best person to head the inspections team and her appointment couldn’t have come at a better time. The team is ready and motivated, and I am pleased to be able to appoint Ms Gulwa as Director: Inspections and I wish her well in her new role.”

Ms Gulwa’s career is driven by a passion for growth, training, and development of young auditors to take on leadership roles in the auditing profession. She is a member of the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (ABASA) and is one of the representatives of the IRBA in the ABASA’s National Council. She is involved in various projects that work towards improving audit quality in the auditing profession, with an overall aim of restoring confidence in the credibility of financial reporting and auditing.

IRBA’s management team is diverse in both gender and race, demonstrating the IRBA’s commitment to equal opportunity. Of the management team of seven, there are two black and one coloured female, one white female, one Indian male and two white males. This makes the IRBA’s senior team 57% female and 57% BCI, thus demonstrating the IRBA’s commitment to women and BCI empowerment.

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Notes to Editors:

More about IRBA inspections:

IRBA follows a risk-based process to select firms and audit files for monitoring reviews. This approach allows the inspections department to be proactive, and to focus its resources on risky areas or where risk indicators have been identified.

The next inspections period includes inspection processes to assess firm and engagement compliance with the new International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM) 1, ISQM 2 and International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 220 (Revised), that are effective from 15 December this year.

More about the IRBA:

The IRBA is a public protection statutory body established to protect the financial interests of the public by ensuring registered auditors and their firms deliver services of the highest quality. It upholds audit firm independence to ensure that audit quality is such that it enhances the accuracy and credibility of financial performance reporting. In this way, the IRBA has an important role to play in building the reputation of South Africa as an investment market for both local and global investors and driving economic growth for the country.

The IRBA also registers suitably qualified accountants as auditors, who must adhere to the highest ethics standards, and promotes the auditing profession through the effective regulation of assurance conducted in accordance with internationally recognised standards and processes.