Tag: auditing standards

Under Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), service providers will have to obtain a SOC 2 report to demonstrate to their clients that they are enforcing proper security and data privacy practices. Over 80% of private, SMME and large companies plan to revise their operations in the next few years.

Buzzwords like automation, mechanisation and digitisation can sound like the end of the human workforce and the loss of personalisation, but in fact they offer a bright and efficient future for the assurance industry. The lexicon of technology buzzwords has become, for many sectors, representative of complexity, unwanted change and negativity.

The South African and other global economies have fallen victim to corporate failures that resulted in devastating effects on investors and the public. When such corporate failures do occur, the role of the auditor is often brought under scrutiny; particularly as it relates to the role of the auditor in detecting fraud, resulting in an increased focus on the audit expectation gap.

Since 2017, the auditing profession has been plagued by high-profile corporate failures that have implicated auditors. As a result of state capture revelations, share price collapses, and corruption allegations, the South African public continues to question how audit can be relied upon to protect its investments.

What happens to an organisation when good governance and warning signs are ignored? The author had a ringside-seat at one of the worst financial catastrophes South Africa has seen and his new book Enabler or victim? KPMG SA and State Capture describes his experience as Chairman of KPMG during the turbulent period the firm experienced.

COVID-19 has taken the world by storm, so much so that plunges in global stock markets are making history in terms of the low levels being hit, as well as the speed at which the collapses are occurring. For the first time in history, the US oil prices fell below zero. From travel bans and cancelled sporting events to national lockdowns, COVID-19 has influenced global and personal realities.

Willie Botha | Senior Executive: Assurance and Practice | SAICA | willieb@saica.co.za | www.saica.co.za | The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 that was...