14 Aug 2022

Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) is concerned about professional accountants who are still practicing without registering with BICA as the law dictates.

Speaking at the opening of the 11^th BICA biennial international conference in Gaborone Thursday, BICA council president, Ms Susanne Swaniker-Tettey said such dodgy dealings would soon be over following the amendment of the Accountants Act in 2020, which placed responsibility of registration on both the accountant and the employer.

“We still however believe there are a number of unregistered practising accountants in our economy which is a great concern, but we are confident now more than ever that the changes in the Accountants Act will enable us to rectify this,” she said.

Ms Swaniker-Tettey said more member registration would add to the number of accountants registered with BICA, which stood at 5 605 members as at June this year.

 She said as a way to increase citizen chartered accountants and to reduce overreliance on non-citizen accountants, BICA ensured continued development of accountants.

Such, she said was done through the implementation of local qualification to drive the localisation of the chartered professional qualification, adding the programmer had  so fa produced 35 graduates.

She further said they were expecting more graduates going forward as there were over 200 learners in the BICA programme.

Furthermore, Ms Swaniker-Tettey said BICA qualification was developed with collaborative efforts from the World Bank and twinning arrangement with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Such, she said, was done for the programme to achieve international portability and recognition, adding that the process was guided by the Ministry of Finance.

The Pan African Federation of Accountants (PAFA), chief executive officer, Ms Alta Prinsloo said BICA was a member of PAFA.

She said PAFA existed to strengthen the capacity and influence of the accountancy profession in Africa to enhance trade, quality of service and trust in institutions.

She said the PAFA strategy emphasised on commitment to professional capacity and professional excellence to achieve quality.

Ms Prinsloo further told the accountants that their career was transforming, hence the need for them to also transform. She added that PAFA was closely working with members to equip them.

Botswana Stock Exchange chief executive officer, Mr Thapelo Tsheolo who was one of the conference speakers, said given the scandals the country had experienced in the past, there was need for the accounting and auditing profession to do more to close gaps. The two days BICA biennial international conference was held under the theme: Transforming the Accountancy Landscape, Moving with Trends.  ENDS