Laws must be amended to increase powers to get rid of delinquent practitioners.

SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) executive president Ignatius Sehoole says the institute has acknowledged that the auditing and accounting profession is in a crisis.

However, Sehoole saw it as an opportunity to win back public confidence.

"We have lost public trust. We have approached Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and asked for government intervention," says Sehoole.

He says any level of selfregulation would be looked at in a sceptical way.

Sehoole says the draft Accountancy Profession Bill has still not been implemented. A task team had to be set up between government and the profession to enter into a consultation process with Manuel, he says. A decision will then be made as to whether the bill should be implemented.

Sehoole says there is a negative perception that the accounting profession is unwilling to "book unethical chartered accountants".

"However, we are being criticised for something we can do little about."

He says their authority to subpoena individuals for disciplinary purposes is limited, which has an adverse effect on the efficacy of the disciplinary process.

A joint disciplinary task team had been set up under both the institute and the board at the beginning of the year, headed by advocate John Myburgh. In July the task team released its report. The team found that the subpoena procedure was limited.

In light of the team's findings, Saica and the board had made recommendations to Manuel that the regulatory laws be amended to give the accountancy profession more powers to "rid it of delinquent members".

With most auditors being members of both the institute and the board, a problem has arisen in the past with the perception of so-called "double trials", as these individuals are subject to both bodies' disciplinary processes.

The task team believes that such hurdles could be overcome by holding joint disciplinary hearings chaired by an independent person.

Sehoole says there are systemic problems that are difficult to explain to members of the public. It is all about working with regulators to change the law.

He says the accountancy profession cannot afford to be complacent. Countries in the southern African region should adopt international accounting standards that should be set in the public interest for both the private and public sector by internationally-recognised independent bodies.

International accounting standards require "high quality, transparent and comparable information".

Sehoole says in the spirit of the profession "we should not lose sight of the excellent work that chartered accountants are doing in SA".

The challenge was to accelerate the number of black chartered accountants. There are 287 black chartered accountants in SA.

With acknowledgements to Business Day.