28 Feb 2018

Botswana Accountancy Oversight Authority  (BAOA) says after the sudden downfalls of big corporate entities in recent years in Botswana such as BCL Mine, it is in support of preventing sudden corporate failures.

Speaking at the media briefing at BAOA offices in Gaborone recently, chief executive officer of BAOA, Mr Duncan Majinda outlined causes of most corporate failures.

“Inadequate oversight over accountants and auditors, lack of auditor independence and weak corporate governance procedures are some of the results of corporate failures or scandals,” Mr Majinda stated.

He mentioned that some of these causes were mostly driven by greed, personal gain and the desire for companies to boost the bottom line.

He emphasised that through BAOA’s comprehensive regulation models such as independent boards for oversight, setting of standards and codes and financial monitoring of public interest entities, they could combat such corporate sudden failures.

BAOA which is an independent oversight body of accounting and auditing profession was set up in 2010 to promote standard, quality and credibility of financial matters of public interest entities and corporate sector.

Mr Majindi stated that the authority also faced challenges of lack of compliance to ethics. Ends