2018 Top 35-under-35 Finalist: Annalene Marais

Lientjie, as she is affectionately known, is a financial manager in the Budget and Treasury office of Sol Plaatje municipality (SPM). She left the audit profession and became a public servant, in 2015, armed with her CA(SA) skills and experience from a private audit firm and the supreme audit institution of south Africa. She was ready to be the solution in the public sector, to implement processes and direct development a task that has proved to be much harder.

She was appointed as the project manager for the implementation of mSCOA (municipal Standard Chart of Accounts), for which the municipality was a pilot site. This exciting project introduces a new way of thinking and reporting for municipalities countrywide. She led a multi-disciplinary team to the successful implementation in July 2015. And now SPM is one of the leading municipalities in this space. She wrote the article “Sol Plaatje municipality’s MSCOA journey” which was published in the CIGFARO magazine during 2016.

“It gave me an opportunity to influence the strategic focus of the municipality – and to bring together the financial reporting and strategic planning processes in a manner that supports growth and development of the city. This has enhanced integrated reporting at the municipality. I used the principles from the mSCOA project to address misalignment between strategic and planning documents, the implementation of strategic goals to annual financial and performance reporting. I act as the IDP manager and this has enabled me to change the processes informing performance information reporting – which ultimately resulted in a turnaround of the municipality’s audit outcomes for reporting on predetermined objectives.” She says.

She is passionate about making a difference and thus serves on various forums e.g. Public Sector Accounting Forum (PSAF), and recently received a nomination to serve on the Accounting Standards Board. Others include SAICA Kimberley District Committee, Chartered Institute of Finance, Audit and Risk officers (CIGFARO).

Her other passion is education and sharing of best practices. She is a graduate from Wits on Advanced Municipal Financial and Supply Chain Management Programme, facilitates at the annual CIGFARO conferences and various education and awareness campaigns.