Tag: South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)

Milton Segal | Executive Director | Standards | South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) | mail me | Sustainability Reporting is about to be revolutionised thanks...

We urge government to fast track professionalisation of local government finance units. This follows the Auditor-General (AG), Tsakani Maluleke’s presentation on the 2021-22 Local Government Audit Outcome to the Standing Committee of the Auditor-General (SCOAG) on Wednesday, 31 May which continues to reflect poor audit outcomes as a result of poor financial planning, inadequate financial controls, skills and capacity, governance and accountability.

We are all only too aware of the dire state of South Africa’s state-owned power provider - Eskom. We now live in permanent load shedding, and only the stages of load shedding alternate depending on the time of day, energy consumption and how much, or little power is available on the grid at a time.

Inflation is the increase in prices over a specific period and which leads to a reduction in the purchasing power of money. The correlation between inflation and purchasing power is important because sometimes we are fooled into thinking that just because an amount increased, like your salary, your purchasing power remains the same.

Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the response below was generated following the prompt "Write the opening paragraph for a media release about how transformative generative AI can be for business and government". Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionise the way businesses and governments operate, enabling them to create new products and services, improve efficiency and decision-making, and drive innovation.

During the Climate Change Conference (COP 26), the world witnessed the launch of the global sustainability standard-setter, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). To meet the demand from international stakeholders, the objective of the ISSB is to provide sustainability-related information that will enable investors to make better economic and investment decisions.

The good news stemming from the Medium Term Budget Policy statement (MTBPS) is that in 2023/24, South Africa is expected to achieve its first primary budget surplus in 15 years and this will be achieved with no new revenue enhancing measures from 2023/24 onwards. 

In April 2012, the Accounting Standards Board approved the adoption of Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP) Standards to replace the Modified Cash Basis of Accounting (MCB) in the public sector. For over a decade, despite South African Revenue Service (SARS) noting its intention ‘to expedite the migration of SARS’ revenue accounting practices to [GRAP] to ensure legislative compliance’, there still has been no implementation. Or has there been?

Does the current model of the traditional regulatory and statutory audit still make sense in the changing business context? These audits performed by independent and external auditors in line with relevant laws and regulations, require the auditee to submit a set of reporting information, and the auditor to produce their report annually in line with the legislated timelines and to meet stakeholder needs.

The voices calling for sustainable business practices across all industries are growing ever louder and the journey towards ‘Net Zero’ will require everyone across the globe to play their part if we are to successfully combat the risks associated with climate change.