30 Jul 2018

Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) has recently unveiled its 2018-19 Council, made up of persons described as capable individuals who have made a mark in the accounting industry.

Introducing the new council to the media and stakeholders in the accounting industry, BICA president, Ms Gosego Motsamai expressed confidence that the new team would assist the organisation in meeting the ideals of its mandate.

“I am very humbled to be given an opportunity to work with the BICA Council for 2018-19.  As a team, we will continue to build on the firm foundation that has been laid by our predecessors to ensure that the institute moves forward and is on the same footing with other institutes the world over,” Ms Motsamai said.

She revealed that their work was guided by the performance against targets set out in their strategic plan, which covered the years 2017-21 and had four perspectives covering the areas of human capital growth, internal systems and processes, customers/stakeholders and results.

“We have recognised that the success and growth of the institute is largely dependent on those charged with the day to day running of its operations. Deliberate actions have therefore been taken to develop and train our staff. Furthermore, appropriate performance measurement systems have been put in place to continually assess staff performance,” she revealed.

She added that they had made significant enhancements to their Information Communications Technology systems and that they had embarked on initiatives to ensure better delivery to their stakeholders.

Recording a 13 per cent growth in membership from December 2016 to July 2018 was noted as a positive, although Ms Motsamai bemoaned what she termed ‘limited technical competency or lack thereof’ of some of their members.

She thus called for the institute and its stakeholders to find means of reinforcing the technical competences of existing and upcoming professional accountants.

BICA CEO, Ms Verily Molatedi said the event also provided an opportunity for stakeholders to interact with BICA management, since they mostly deal with the secretariat.

She added that for the accounting profession to contribute meaningfully to the National Vision 2036 Pillar of Sustainable Economic Development, they needed to be well regulated, ethical and efficient in the execution of their tasks.

In addition to Ms Motsamai, the BICA Council office bearers include: Ba Isago University finance director Mr Moshe Libengo, who serves a second term as BICA Vice President and Deloitte partner Ms Cecilia Ramatlapeng as treasurer.

Other members of the BICA Council are Mr Maemo Mesotlo, Mr Rudi Binedell as well as the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning appointees, Ms Boineelo Peter, Ms Helen Chilisa and Mr Conductor Masena.

The council is complemented by Mr Emmanuel Marufu, the BICA Northern Committee representative and Ms Mpho Masuge, the Accounting Technical membership class representative. ENDS