Introduction
There is one cure that apparently does not work for insomniac accountants and that is to count sheep. A chartered accountant, who was having a hard time sleeping, went to her doctor, complaining that she could not sleep at night.
“Have you tried counting sheep?” the doctor asked. The tired chartered accountant (CA) rubbed her eyes and explained with a sigh, “That’s the problem, I made a mistake and then spent three hours trying to find it.”
I absolutely do not subscribe to the rumour that accountants are boring people. They just get excited over boring things. And how desperate is our country for such people! As for the CA who could not sleep over one lost sheep I wish there were a trillion more people who can’t sleep when there is a cent missing.
Congratulations
We are very pleased that more than 75 new black women chartered accountants in KwaZulu-Natal have been added to the skills pool since February this year. Congratulations on the outcome of the final qualifying examination and your hard work! We hope to keep you here and not to lose you to other provinces.
It is pleasing to note that the first time national average pass rate of African candidates was 55 percent in part two of the qualifying examination. According to Nazeer Wadee, Chief Operating Officer at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), African candidates, who participated in the sector education and training authority (SETA) for Finance, Accounting, Management Consulting and other Financial Services (FASSET) sponsored programme, achieved a 77 percent pass rate in the second part of the qualifying
examination.
Shortage
It is no secret that our province and our country have a dire need for suitably qualified people in financial management. Black people and women are grossly less represented in all directorships and top executive leadership positions of Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed companies.
A recent survey released by Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) indicates that despite the increase of black and female CAs over the years, women still only accounted for three percent of the 219 chief finance officer positions, the rest (97 percent) are men.
Need for CAs in the public service
While we encourage women to take up top corporate positions government is also standing in the queue. We are very eager to use the skills of some of the newly qualified CAs in our public service. I believe that National Treasury has already promised to follow up on the matter, while Provincial Treasury is also working on recruitment and training programme that will help to fill some much needed audit specialist posts.
Clean audit reports
Our municipalities in particular are desperate for adequately qualified and skilled financial professionals. Very often critical information to measure financial performance is not credible or accurate or sometimes not submitted at all. Unless financial management, as well as fiscal governance in the public service, municipalities and public entities are improved, government cannot improve service delivery and spearhead development that will provide a better life for all our people.
All municipalities and provincial departments must be achieving unqualified audit opinion reports by 2014. By setting that target we do not say that a clean audit implies real service delivery, but it is a crucial step in the promotion of a culture of accountability and good governance.
For the first time, in this financial year, all 16 provincial government departments will be subjected to performance auditing by the Auditor-General. He will not express an opinion this year, but departments will use the exercise as a practise run. From the 2010/11 financial year the Auditor-General will not only audit the performance reports but also express an opinion on whether the departments have achieved what they committed themselves to. Prior to this departments have submitted performance reports but they have not been audited by the Auditor-General.
The performance of all metros, high capacity municipalities and public entities will be audited for the 2009/10 financial year. While no opinion will be expressed a comment will be given in a management letter. Like provincial departments, an opinion will be expressed in the 2010/11 financial year. The rest will be audited on a readiness basis.
The world is demanding greater transparency, both in government and the private sector. In the competing global world governments must, now more than ever before, ensure that their own houses are in order to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and value for money to enhance core public services, i.e. service delivery.
It is imperative for government to effectively manage its own costs, verify that proper controls are in place and that high standards of governance and transparency are maintained. Without the confidence and trust of the public it becomes extremely difficult to drive macro-economic programmes. And, as we all know trust can only be earned when we fulfil our commitments.
Trust is also built on facts and the truth. Therefore an auditor’s report is considered an essential tool when reporting financial information. A clean bill of health not only attracts investors and enables government and businesses to obtain loans, but it also improves public perceptions. Some investors go as far as stating that financial information without an auditor’s report is “essentially worthless” for investing purposes.
Our strategic objective of promoting a culture of zero tolerance on fraud and corruption requires us to lend the necessary support to our clients to help them manage their risks more effectively. We cannot afford to lose our scarce resources though criminal activities.
AWCA’s contribution
Against this backdrop we regard AWCA’s partnership as invaluable. One of government’s priorities is the empowerment of women and young people. Therefore I particularly like your three tier strategy that includes identifying and developing young girls. Women are very often not aware of what the world of numbers offers.
A former teacher told me how astounded she was when her top grade eight mathematics student shyly confessed that entering for a course in human sciences at the local university was her ultimate dream. “This girl was so good at numbers, when she had something ‘wrong’ in her answer script I would check my memo to see if I had not made the mistake. I could feel her excitement when I told her about a career in accounting,” the teacher told me.
Women empowerment
With sponsorship and bursaries offered by many companies and AWCA through
SAICA our daughters no longer have to live in an era where they have to take a back seat, or settle for more mundane professions traditionally “reserved” for women. The increasing number of women in parliament and senior management positions in government is also proof of government’s commitment to women.
Half of the KwaZulu-Natal Cabinet consists of women. There are many inspiring stories about women, who have grown from humble beginnings to well-respected business women and managers. AWCA’s membership reflects many such success stories.
We acknowledge the wonderful contribution of many dedicated fathers but we have to change the mindset of many of our men who still believe that bringing up children is solely a women’s role. The parental role is a shared one and dreams for our daughters must extend beyond the home. It has to be a matter of choice.
A new world order
The current economic crisis has brought forward questions about ethics and values and there is now a strong feeling that our planet needs a new compass to set us on a path of real progress. We have to practice what Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein believed, “the world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation”.
The winds of change also bring an opportunity for gender change. Across the globe the call for more women in the boardroom is growing. The; “what if” recession scenarios have been very revealing. What if the investment bankers, mortgage lenders and chief executive officers at the male-dominated wall street firms had been female? Would they have taken the same risks that dumped the whole world into a recession? Maybe not.
The New York Times columnist Nicholas D Kristof suggests that if it had been the Lehman Brothers and Lehman sisters the financial world would not have been in this predicament. He refers to a study in the Evolution and Human Behaviour journal that found that men are particularly likely to make high-risk bets when under financial pressure and surrounded by other men.
An equity research report published by the global investment giant Goldman Sachs in August last year indicated that women are now poised to drive the post recession economy. The report, “Power of the Purse”, proclaims women the economic engine of the future. Future spending by women “should support the development of human capital” to a greater extent than spending by men. “This,” the report suggested, will fuel “economic growth in the years ahead”.
The rise of women as a grand, cross-border emerging market could have far reaching implications. Research suggests that women’s spending patterns may be exactly what the world needs at this moment. “Economists have studied how women spend in comparison to men, and they tend to spend more on things that are linked to people’s well being, like health and education. They also tend to save more and exhibit less risky financial behaviour,” notes Yassine Fall, senior economic adviser for United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations agency dedicated to women.
For ourselves, for our nation
Sisters we must do it, for ourselves and our nation. I applaud the AWCA volunteers, who give of their time, free of charge, to uplift and pave the way for our young people who are on their way up. Martin Luther King, Junior said: “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity”.
Poverty remains our biggest threat. Therefore every single action we take should be geared towards faster economic growth, higher employment and reduced levels of poverty. The drop in revenue has forced us to spend our scarce resources more effectively, efficiently and economically.
We have to DO MORE WITH LESS. Value for money is paramount and government funds will only be allocated to projects of a developmental nature which contribute to economic growth and the realisation of the 12 measurable outcomes spelled out by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the
Nation Address in February 2010.
Together we can do more
While the recession may have slowed down our pace it certainly has not changed our direction. A key area is the improvement of quality in basic education. We all know that education is the very first step to freedom. Proper education opens windows of opportunity to our children, such as becoming chartered accountants.
Financial literacy is at very low levels in our country. We need all the help that we can get to give our people the freedom to make sound financial decisions. When all our children are financially literate and we have instilled in them a sense of responsibility, accountability, honesty, care and respect for others, then we have fulfilled our obligations as women.
Some of course will take it to the extreme, like the accountant mother who had just read the story of Cinderella to her four years old daughter for the first time. The little girl was fascinated by the story, especially the part where the pumpkin turns into a golden coach. Suddenly she piped up, “mommy, when the pumpkin turned into a golden coach, would that be classed as income or a long-term capital gain?”
I thank you.
Issued by: Provincial Treasury, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
24 March 2010
Source: Provincial Treasury, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
(http://www.kzntreasury.gov.za/)
