Recent reports by the Auditor-General of South Africa state that there are municipalities that fail to timeously submit financial statements for audit purposes. Without dwelling much on the reasons for such failures, it is public knowledge that these municipalities rely significantly on the support of external service providers to compile and submit annual financial statements.…
Tough and far reaching new anti-corruption laws mean that companies have to be more vigilant than ever. The local and global anti-corruption landscape is changing rapidly. Chartered accountants, either in business or in the profession, have to keep abreast of new developments to ensure that they play a meaningful role in the prevention of corruption…
The biggest risk to business is not knowing what your risks are. The typical organisation loses 5% of its revenue to fraud, according to the global Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ (ACFE) ‘Report to the Nations’ survey released in 2012. Applied to the 2011 Gross World Product, the figures in this report translates into a…
The AUGUST Issue Comments Dear Accountancy SA Well done on a great August issue! I didn’t know we had so many beautiful women in the profession! Keep up the good work. Warm regards, Chris van der Merwe Dear Editor It is with delight that I opened my Accountancy SA magazine of August. As a female…
Finding value and safe bets in financial markets is trickier than ever, as investors weigh their options. The trail of uncertainty left by the great financial market collapse of 2008 has triggered many investors to either hold their heads in disbelief or to seek short profit opportunities. How can one interpret such parabolic swings and…
The IASB and FASB jointly tackle the anomalies in lease accounting. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the United States Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) released a second exposure draft on lease accounting in May 2013. IAS 17 LEASES IAS 17 Leases currently allows a company to classify its leases as either a finance…
PPP is a term that was penned in the 1990s and is also known as the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ It accounts for: – People: social responsibility – Planet: environmental responsibility – Profit: economic value after inputs and all costs of capital. Why Important? The foundation of the breakdown is that you only pay attention to…
Offering a prudent balance between reward and risk, ‘real return funds’ take the middle road. Real return funds are often overlooked in investment portfolios for being ‘too boring’ or ‘too slow to deliver spectacular returns’. Nonetheless they may be highly suitable for investors with a medium- to long-term investment horizon. The temptation is always there…
Can accountants afford to sit on client books for months? Go to the dentist and you are likely to be out in less than 30 minutes. Take your car in for a service and you will probably have it back by the end of the day. Take your books and records to the accountant and…
Once upon a time there was an accountable government, and other fairy tales. The theme for this month’s issue is transparency and accountability in government, a good thing is that everybody wants. But what we want and what we get are not always the same thing. It’s depressing, frankly. So let’s tell a fairy tale…