WE CAN NEVER AGAIN TRUST ACCOUNTANTS
GROWING up, we all looked at accounting as the epitome of professional aspiration and excellence.
Given its lofty role and responsibility, the barriers to entry were near impossible. Not everyone qualified. It was the profession’s badge of honour that there were only a few, then roughly 12 000, with less than 10% Africans, who qualified as chartered accountants (CAs).
Even today, the recent SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) statistics illustrate that the profession is still a preserve for the “privileged” few.
Out of the 44 700-plus qualified, with just over 63% male, 70% white and only 0.5% disabled, it remains a profession for the male, pale and able.
With my excellent maths and science results, it was the one “respectable” qualification that I was determined to pursue at Wits University.
The first-year first lecturer, a frail-looking but lucid and smart old man, warned us that the class of about 100 was just too big for aspirant accountants.
I was thus devastated, but not surprised, when I apparently didn’t build on my first-year 69% mid-year results and ended up with a cumulative 47% final mark.
I left for the US on a scholarship in 1989 and ultimately gravitated out of accounting into marketing and an award for academic excellence by the American Marketing Association, ahead of kicking off my marketing career at Colgate Palmolive, New York.
Typically, those who made it in accounting were not just in high demand, but often rose to occupy positions of trust and authority in South Africa’s blue-chip companies.
They were trusted to steer and account for businesses in the right way – by shareholders, staff and regulators – and to uphold Saica’s principle of “integrity”.
Firms… have proven often to be blinded by greed, deference to the whims of unethical leaders, or just pure negligence
But when one reflects on many of the devastating financial crises, indeed crimes, that have brought countries and companies to their knees in the 21st century, this is the one profession that has been the catalyst and at the centre of most of them through abetting “(un)fair dealing and (un) truthfulness”.
In 2003, Sekunjalo filed a R200 million damages claim against Deloitte over the losses it suffered when Leisurenet, owners of the Health & Racquet Club fitness clubs, collapsed in 2000 with liabilities of R1.2 billion and assets of only R302m due to tax fraud, insider trading and other crimes by its founders, Peter Gardener and Rod Mitchell.
Steinhoff, which had operations in 30 countries, over 40 brands, and employed about 90 000 people, has vaulted to the top of the league as the biggest accounting fraud in South African corporate history. The company has lost about 95% of its value since December due to dubious accounting irregularities attributed to former chief executive, Markus Jooste.
Accounting firms, which are put in a position of trust and oversight, have proven to often be blinded by greed, deference to the whims of unethical leaders or just pure negligence. Or sometimes the short-term goals of leaders and investors whose gains are often linked to short-term results.
They have often looked the other way, or worse, as a litany of cases have been accomplices to the raw crime and abuse of trust. Along the way, they’ve destroyed thousands of jobs and careers.