eBusiness Weekly
Kudzanai Sharara
The Public Accountants and Auditors Board is working on reporting guidelines for business entities and practitioners in Zimbabwe for their use for the 2018 reporting period, a senior official with the Public Accountants and Auditors Board has said.The development comes at a time there has been concern among the accounting and auditing fraternity on how to report in the current economic environment that is fraught with many challenges including, but not limited to currency uncertainty and volatility.
Speaking on the side-lines of a roundtable breakfast meeting organised by ACCA Zimbabwe to mark the fifth annual Global Ethics Day, Admire Ndurunduru, the secretary for Public Accountants and Auditors Board (PAAB) said, there will be a guidance for reporting under the current environment that will be given to practitioners for use for the 2018 financial reporting.
Ndurunduru said PAAB, which functions in terms of the Public Accountants and Auditors Act Chapter 27:12, is the accounting and auditing standards setter as well as the independent regulator for the accountancy profession in Zimbabwe.
“In terms of that Act we are issuing guidance for reporting under the current environment, so there will be a guidance,” said Ndurunduru.
Commenting on the state of the accounting fraternity, Ndurunduru said the sector is strong but more needs to be done. He said one of the things that the accounting profession had committed to do is to be the trusted advisors to Government.
“There is no business that operates without an accountant, so as trusted advisors we can proffer our views, our thoughts on how to kick-start the economy, we have accountants in all sectors of the economy,” he said.
Commenting on the breakfast meeting that focused on encouraging organisations to explore the role of ethics in business as well as highlighting ethical challenges that the accountancy profession faces in the digital era, Ndurunduru said it was paramount to mainstream ethics discussions. Professional accountants around the world have consistently viewed good ethical behaviour as essential as it helps to build trust in the digital age.
However, ethical behaviour in business is a moving target, and participants at the breakfast meeting said the way transactions are now being conducted, including mobile money transactions, poses ethical dilemmas to accountants.
Participants also highlighted that some of the ethical dilemmas that accountants are now having to deal with are remnants from the hyperinflation era, which must, however, be eradicated from our traditional culture as Africans.
There were also concerns with regards how to report in this current environment, one of which is the introduction of FCA accounts and RTGS FCA accounts at banks. Ndurunduru, applauded ACCA for organising an event to mark Global Ethics Day: “We need to acknowledge ACCA, and it’s very important, and in future we need a wider stakeholder group of the accounting profession.”
“I think this is a good start, and that message that Zimbabwe is open for business, this is a Global Day and we have also celebrated it, so mainstreaming ethics and the role of the profession to support businesses. There is need to speak out ethics and we have already adopted the Code of Ethics on February 26, 2018.”
