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Cabinet approves new Irba board

Warren Thompson

Stakeholders in the financial services industry say the new board appointed to lead the auditing industry body, the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (Irba), will provide the organisation with the stability needed to regulate a profession in crisis.

Stakeholders in the financial services industry say the new board appointed to lead the auditing industry body will provide the organisation with the stability needed to regulate a profession in crisis.

The Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (Irba), which oversees a local audit industry grappling with audit failures at Steinhoff and Tongaat Hulett, faced criticism for the appointment of Jenitha John as CEO in June 2020.

Now the cabinet has approved a new 10-member board for Irba that will oversee the renewal of the watchdog.

The Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals (Absip) said on Thursday the appointments, while long overdue, are welcome.

“Irba has spent far too much time sorting out its own internal dilemmas as opposed to regulating a profession in crisis. The first objective is to achieve executive stability at the organisation,” Absip treasurer Khaya Sithole said.

The new board comprises auditing firm PwC’s former COO, Fulvio Tonelli, and Association for Savings and Investment SA foundation CEO Ruth Benjamin-Swales. Former Reserve Bank and Alexander Forbes CFO Naidene Ford-Hoon and Richard Hawkins bring further heavyweight corporate experience.

Other members are Zine Mshengu, who joins as employee of the Prudential Authority (the regulator of banks), and academic Chuma Mjali, a lecturer at the University of Fort Hare, according to her LinkedIn profile. The four other directors are Thabiso Kutumela, Nalini Maharaj, Protas Phili and Eugene Zungu, a national leader for audit services in the office of the auditor-general.

Neither Irba nor the Treasury had provided the professional CVs of the new directors by the time of going to press.

Sithole also welcomed the inclusion of legal expertise such as that of Maharaj to assist in the next phase of Irba’s oversight role. Search and seizure powers were recently granted to the regulator to “give it more clout” when investigating serious wrongdoing by auditors that bordered on professional negligence and criminality. Sithole said legal input would be vital when using the new powers.

The new board will take over from the caretaker board comprising Nonkululeko Gobodo and Roy Andersen, who were drafted to run the organisation after the dissolution of the previous board and the departure of John in February.

Irba is responsible for developing and maintaining auditing and ethical standards that are internationally comparable.

The change at Irba comes as the country tries to salvage its reputation after some devastating scandals in recent years at companies such as African Bank, VBS Mutual and some Gupta-owned businesses.

The country’s ranking for the quality of its audit industry has plummeted from number one in 2016 to 49 in 2019, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

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2021-06-11T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-11T07:00:00.0000000Z

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