The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) is to introduce a community involvement programme for its members.

This was said by newly appointed SAICA Board Chairman, Mr Hassen Kajie at his inaugural speech last night at the SAICA Annual Dinner. "SAICA will introduce a voluntary community programme and urge every member to make a contribution." He added.

Mr Kajie was speaking in front of his colleagues, peers and guest speaker, Minister of Finance, Mr Trevor Manual in Cape Town after he was invested as chairman of the board by the SAICA board in its Annual General Meeting earlier in the day.

Hassen Kajie, who hails from the Western Cape and is past president of the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of South Africa (ABASA) in the Western Cape, is the second person of colour to chair the SAICA board after Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu.

Addressing his colleagues, Mr Kajie acknowledged their privileged status saying, "we had opportunities to study and to qualify as chartered accountants and associate general accountants, whereas many people in South Africa have not had that privilege, therefore, as privileged persons, we need to put something back and in a sense invest in the future of this country."

Hassen Kajie takes over from Colin Beggs as chairman of SAICA and will hold that position until the end of his tenure next May.

Speaking after the inauguration of the new chairman, SAICA executive president, Mr Ignatius Sehoole said that the accountancy profession was faced with a unique opportunity to deal with the challenges facing the profession and demonstrate that the profession is the leading profession in the country. "It is important that we revitalise our energies on solving the challenges facing us."

Sehoole went on to say that, in pro-actively facing up to the challenges facing the profession, the Institute had found that significant changes needed to be made to governance and oversight of the profession with the key changes needed being:

• The creation of an independent oversight body • Tightening of the code of professional conduct to deal more effectively with auditor independence • Enhancement of the professions' ability to deal with delinquent members, especially those in commerce and industry • Enhancement of the professions' quality procedures with greater focus on high risk areas

With regard to the independence of auditors, Sehoole said, " Auditors need to be independent and they need to be seen to be independent. In particular, the profession needs to explore the extent to which auditors may in the future provide non-audit services to their audit clients."

On the issue of investor protection, the executive president conceded that "it would do no good to beef up the regulation of auditors and not tackle the other elements of the problem." In this regard, he said it was important that company management should take initial responsibility for failures and that legal backing for accounting standards should be in place.

He went on to say that the Companies Act was outdated and needed a major overhaul.

Sehoole also stressed the importance of transformation within the profession in order to enhance its credibility and standing in the country. He assured the SAICA members in attendance as well as the Minister of Finance that the Institute was attending to all these issues with great vigour.

For further information please contact: Aubrey Ndhlovu SAICA Communications Manager 011 622 6655

With acknowledgements to SAICA and SAPA.