Directors found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour could face up to 10 years in prison, warns Jean Meijer, competition lawyer at commercial law firm Bowman Gilfillan. “These are among several profound implications to emerge from the new Competition Bill.” Meijer says that the Bill creates criminal liability for price fixing, market division and collusive tendering. Thus:…
DetailsPOST ELECTION VIOLENCE AND THE KENYAN PRACTITIONER The 2007 post election violence that rocked the country during December 2007 and most of January 2008 saw the destruction of many businesses and a mass exodus of people, resulting in a huge number of individuals being displaced. The signing of the peace accord by the government and…
DetailsQuality is key in the rigorous process of qualifying as a South African Chartered Accountant. All steps in the qualification process from the undergraduate and postgraduate degrees through to the standard setting Part I examination, the training programme and eventual assessment of professional competence are specifically designed to promote and embrace the standards relating to…
DetailsFROM 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…
DetailsWe 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…
DetailsFinancial 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…
DetailsThe 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…
DetailsGAAP 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…
DetailsSAQA’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,”…
DetailsTRANSFORMING 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,…
Details