Tag: accounting irregularities

As part of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (SAICA) month-long focus on ethics, we have contributed valuable insights during a webinar on how a good ethical culture is the enabling environment for every activity of the enterprise, how it enhances the quality of all resources, and how it is the regenerative source for an organisation’s trust capital.

On 26 June 2020, the High Court in Johannesburg dismissed with costs an application for the certification of a class action by Steinhoff shareholders against the directors and auditors of Steinhoff companies, having determined that the shareholders do not have a triable case. 

Considering the high profile scandals that have dominated news headlines in the last few years, from VBS Mutual Bank to Eskom, it does not seem unreasonable to say that South Africa may have a corporate fraud problem. What’s more, the accounting irregularities that led to shareholders being defrauded and losing significant shareholder value, may have been entirely preventable if the internal auditors had been more empowered, protected and held to the same level of accountability as external auditors, via appropriate regulation of the internal audit industry.