FROM THE PEN The primary champion issue I was reading an interesting article on the Mail and Guardian website a short while ago regarding the attacks in Alexandra, Diepsloot and other areas around the country. The article basically summed up the incidences as the “have nots” greed and envy of those that have. To say…
We continue to grapple with the pervasive shortage of qualified professionals and sound accounting skills across the country. The emigration of skilled professionals, coupled with an inadequate pipeline of qualifying Chartered Accountants are two of the pressing issues that the profession faces today. Dealing with both challenges is complex and is often beyond the reach…
Financial Performance Management – new mid-market solutions offer an alternative to spreadsheet terror. Careful management of the financial performance of any organisation is critical to its success and long-term sustainability. In a dynamic marketplace, however, static reporting based on spreadsheets seldom delivers the agility necessary to remain competitive. Small and medium sized organisations are thus…
The individuals entrusted with the management of any company have numerous responsibilities, including providing returns to their capital shareholders and the monitoring and control of performance across divisions, and across the company as a whole. Management thus requires performance measures that allow for the assessment of performance across the company, and which at the same…
GAAP MONITORING PANEL FEEDBACK The GAAP Monitoring Panel (GMP) is a joint initiative between the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the JSE Limited (JSE). It was created in 2002 as an oversight body to enhance compliance with accounting standards. A total of six companies listed on the JSE were referred to the…
SAQA’s National Learners’ Records Database (NLRD), the first such system in the world, holds the key to tracking crucial information for human resource development in South Africa. It is the NLRD that underpins the publication of important information and research tools, such as SAQA’s second edition of “Trends in Public Higher Education in South Africa,”…
TRANSFORMING THE AUDITING PROFESSION The phrase, “I want to be an auditor when I grow up” has probably never been uttered in a primary school anywhere in the world. Unlike the medical and legal professions, there are no TV shows set in auditing firms. But the auditing profession is undeniably crucial, protecting, as it does,…
“Back in the 70s and 80s things never changed as much, it was like the world stayed the same for longer, you know!” These are the words of a man sixty three years old in corporate South Africa. We were discussing the constant change in his work environment, after the company he worked for was…
Om te kalf is vir ‘n koei om geboorte te gee. Maar daar is ‘n ander tipe, alledaagse ‘kalf’. Dit is wanneer dinge ineenstort, en dis die een wat ek in gedagte het! Ons ekonomie kalf momenteel. Net nageboorte waar jy kyk, en nie ‘n mooi aangesig nie. Dit het tog so onskuldig begin. Huishoudelike…
Readers may be forgiven if they believe that the title of this article refers to Eskom. It does not, although Eskom’s proposed savage increases in the price of electricity may well prove to be a catalyst in persuading the Minister of Finance to revise some of his tax policies. Policies which were admirable ten years…