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Office of the Auditor General
2002-04-02
Mr Shauket Fakie was born on 19 August 1953. He matriculated in 1971 and was awarded B Comm degree and BCompt (Hons) by the University of South Africa in 1983. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant (CA) in South Africa in 1986 and in Australia (1988).
Mr Fakie has a very broad and varied audit and consulting skills, following 17 years experience in the auditing profession both locally and internationally. Furthermore, this is backed by a further nine years commercial experience with reputable companies. Mr Fakie’s strength also lies in transformation initiatives, strategic leadership, participative management style, excellent soft skills and a commitment to world class standards and the African Renaissance.
He has been active in the auditing profession and has served on various committees of the Western Cape Society of Chartered Accountants. He also served on the Education Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. He is an active member of the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants in Southern Africa (ABASA) and serves on various Sub-Committees of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board.
Mr Fakie is married to Zainab and has three children.
Career Developments
Mr Fakie started his career in commerce as an Accounting Clerk. In 1982 he joined Ernst & Young auditing firm in Cape Town to serve his articles and progressed to the level of Audit Supervisor by 1985. When his career development was impeded during apartheid years, he took up a position as a partner in the Australian auditing firm Francis A Jones & Associates. He was an Audit Manager/Partner from 1987 to 1991. For two years thereafter, he worked as an independent auditor, consultant, tax advisor and financial accountant to several clients in both public and private sector.
He returned to South Africa in 1992 and joined the auditing firm Ernst & Young as a Senior Consultant. He was responsible for developing business plans, rendering management advisory and business process re-engineering services to the Departments of Education, Health and Public Works.
Office of the Auditor-General
Mr Fakie joined the Office of the Auditor-General in 1995 when he was appointed Provincial Auditor of Gauteng Province. He was promoted to the position of Deputy Auditor-General and Chief Executive Officer from 1 March 1998.
As Deputy Auditor-General, his responsibilities included overseeing the audit of the World Health Organisation (WHO). He was also responsible for overseeing the audit of various related bodies such as the International Computing Centre, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, where he gained invaluable experience in the United Nations.
As Chief Executive Officer, he led the Office in its quest for Employment Equity. The Affirmative Action Forum was established to review targets set for three years, from 1999 to 2002. A target of 39 per cent at management level was set for 1998-1999. By 31 March 1999, the Office had achieved 38 per cent representivity of the target groups at management level. The quantitative and qualitative targets, including time frames, are monitored on a continual basis by the Affirmative Action Forum, the Project Leader: Employment Equity and the Chief Executive Officer, together with his Corporate Executive Management team.
His Role as the Auditor-General
The President of the Republic of South Africa appointed Mr Fakie as the Auditor-General with effect from 1 December 1999.
Mr Fakie is inspired by the fact that the Office of the Auditor-General is independent and is allowed to operate independently. This principle is very important in terms of international standards and best practices. He is inspired that the Office is not only independent on paper but is seen to be independent in practice. Mr Fakie strongly believes the Office must live up to expectations and ‘live’ its independence – which is linked to the whole issue of democracy.
He strongly believes that the Office has to play an important role in getting economic crime under control in South Africa. Indication to this was the participation of the Top Management at the National Anti-Corruption Summit which was held in Parliament. The Summit resolved to serve as the basis of a national strategy to combat corruption. The strategy was divided into three sections, namely, Combating corruption, Preventing corruption and building integrity and raising awareness levels.
His Vision and Mission for the Office
Mr Fakie is totally committed to the Credo of the Office being the leader in effective accountability. He values the need to be both independent and professional in pursuing this goal.
He believes that the other major direction is to basically enhance the process of transformation of the Office in its broadest sense. He is keen to see an enhancement of professional services that add value. In this way, he would like to see audits being done in a way that adds value as well.
He believes that the Office must be cost-effective, multi_skill its staff and provide sufficient training to empower its people to be responsible and effective. For him, transformation also goes outside of the Office in his vision for the accountancy and auditing professions to be transformed in terms of more equality regarding race and gender representivity.
Mr Fakie’s other goal in terms of transformation is to support black emerging audit firms vis-à-vis contracting out. Even though the Office is already practising this, he is keen to continue to expand in this field. He believes that the Office has positioned itself internationally and must maintain and enhance this growing international standing.
Personal Strategic Vision
Mr Fakie has personal strategic goals to guide him in his role as the Auditor-General. These goals are divided into both the medium term and long term.
On a more immediate level, he would like to make a positive contribution as the Auditor-General to the Office, to the work the Office does on his behalf and to the work that the Office is doing for its auditees, Parliament and the taxpayers.
In the longer term, he wishes to elevate the Office to a different level. This does not mean the Office is not already good, but he wishes to see it advance and grow. He believes that in the long term, if the Office could do without him, his strategic vision would be fulfilled.
The Office on the International Scene
The Office of the Auditor-General has already proven itself to be a competent and professional organisation performing audits on national, provincial and local levels of governments. Above that, the Office has now established itself as a well-respected Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), recognised by the international community.
The Office was reappointed as the external auditors of the World Health Organization (WHO) for four years from 2000 to 2003. The Office was reappointed mainly because during the audit of the 1996-1997 and 1998-1999 financial periods, the Office assisted WHO in the development of many significant initiatives. These include the setting up of an audit committee, ensuring improved accountability and improvements in financial reporting to the World Health Assembly (WHA). The audit team also developed a core of expertise specific to WHO and gained valuable insights into the Organization. On 17 May this year, the Auditor-General presented the second biennial (1998-1999) report on the accounts of the WHO to the WHA in Geneva.
The Office was also appointed to carry out the small but prestigious audit of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institution (INTOSAI) together with Finland in 1994, for a three-year period ending on 31 December 1997. The Office had the honour of being re-appointed to this audit, which was a major shift from the recent past where new auditors were appointed for every new three-year term.
The Office of the Auditor-General was appointed as external auditors to the United Nations (UN) from July 2000. South Africa shares this responsibility jointly with Britain and the Philippines. The office has been assigned to audit peacekeeping operations. The duration of the contract is three years and is renewable.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Office of the Auditor-General signed a Memorandum of Agreement in February 2000. The Memorandum formalises the working relationship between the two bodies for the conducting of audits of USAID bilateral donor funds. USAID are impressed with the South African Audit Office, calling it ‘one of the premier audit organisations on the entire continent’. At the XVI INTOSAI, an accord was agreed upon between SAI’s regarding environmental auditing which included that the activities of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing will be regionalised. The Working Group identified South Africa as the facilitator for Africa and South Africa, Egypt and Cameroon as the start-up team for Africa.
The Office of the Auditor-General was honoured to host the 17th Commonwealth Auditor-Generals’ Conference in October 1999. The befitting theme "Auditing in the next century" was developed into three sub-themes, dealing with matters of importance world-wide. These were, Adding value to the Audit Product: the role and responsibilities of SAI’s in this regard, Environmental Audit and Computer Audit.
With acknowledgement to the Office of the
Auditor-General.