Saica summit highlights collaboration as key to addressing the public sector challenges

Delivering his welcome and opening address, Saica’s executive director: standards, Milton Segal, said the summit serves as a dynamic platform for discussions, knowledge sharing and strategic collaborations and aims at fostering transformation within the South African public sector.

In his keynote address, deputy minister of finance, Dr David Masondo, said the government is committed to embedding a focus on effectiveness, efficiency and innovation as a priority and developing an expectation that achieving value for money in the public sector is normal.

“The Office of the accountant-general has embarked on an exercise of reviewing and amending the Public Finance Management Act as well as the Municipal Finance Management Act, to amongst others, address failures in government structures, fraud and corruption, accountability arrangements, expenditure management as well as accounting and reporting,” Masondo said.

Masondo further stated most of the problems in municipalities are not as a result of officials, but politicians: “We need to think about setting standards for ourselves on who becomes a councillor, and who becomes a mayor so that we provide proper oversight, and we must also appoint good managers who are appropriate for these positions,” he added.

In supporting Milton’s opening remarks, Saica CEO, Patricia Stock, called for collaboration and partnerships in the public sector, saying the complex ecosystem in which the public sector operates requires the government, civil society, private sector and academia to provide effective solutions.

“By sharing our knowledge, experiences, and best practices, we can collectively address the challenges facing the public sector and build a more sustainable and equitable future for South Africa,” Stock said.

Providing her words of support, RSM South Africa CEO, Noma Ashom, said accountants and auditors are the future, and they should hold each other accountable and collaborate in the public and private sectors to ‘make the country work’.

Fireside chat: The courageous work of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA)

In his conversation with the summit moderator, Khaya Sithole, the CEO of OUTA, Wayne Duvenage said the state of accountability and transparency in the public sector is not in a good place. He highlighted the hoarding of public information and the procurement processes as key issues in the public sector.

“Transparency is a serious problem and the enemy of corruption. There is so much information that should be in the public domain, but we must fight to get it, and it takes years. The minute that happens you smell a rat, there is a problem. On procurement, the treasury runs what we can restricted suppliers database, it is meaningless. There are many companies and people that have done business with the government that are found wanting, that are guilty of corruption, yet they still do business with the government today,” Duvenage said.

The fireside chat conversation was followed by two panel discussions. Here are some key takeaways from the panel discussions:

The profession’s contribution to the public sector, a quest to make a meaningful difference

On the challenges around whistleblowing and protection thereof, Patricia Stock said the institution is considering establishing a fund for its members in the event of victimisation, leading to loss of income. “I am not going to claim that Saica has figured out what is the best solution, but we are already focusing on that. Is there a room for us to have a fund for the whistleblower?” Stock asked. “But also our partnership with The Whistleblower House is that if a member comes forth, we can say these are the things that we can guide you on.”

Vonani Chauke, deputy auditor general mentioned the societal impact of people who trained with the Auditor General South Africa (AGSA). He further encouraged public servants to take pride in the work that they do. “In other countries, serving in the public sector is something which is taken with pride. In South Africa, there has been a history where people who can’t find anything else end up in the public sector, we need to change that,” Chauke said.

Annalene Marais, the Chartered Institute of Government Finance Audit and Risk Officers (CIGFARO) board member said there are vast challenges that members of the public sector face. She highlighted political interference, no support from lower and higher levels of staff and the reputational risk for professionals, that comes with working in a municipal environment, as some of the challenges.

While, Wayne Duvenage applauded the work of the AGSA and its collaboration with civil society to ensure transparency and accountability in the public sector.

Fiscal responsibility, public finance management and the social pillar of ESG (sustainability)

Natashia Soopal, Saica’s executive: ethics standards and public sector, mentioned technology, education and training, collaboration, fostering a culture of social and environmental sustainability in the profession, and adopting standards as important actions for social impact. “As a profession, we need to remain relevant and I do believe that as an institute if we focus on this, we will make the shift to sustainability reporting,” Soopal said. The panel also agreed that the public sector has foundations on which to build for sustainability reporting, through its current reporting on predetermined objectives (performance reporting).

With the ESG reporting also touching on the aspect of risk, Kgothatso Maoko, executive head: technical and professional development at SAIGA, said accountants are more than just debit and credit, more than just looking at the fair presentation of financial statements. She said they should be risk practitioners, agile, and innovative within their space.

Meanwhile, as organisations are increasingly under pressure to report on sustainability to help stakeholders make informed decisions, Lebogang Khunou, director: head of consulting at RSM South Africa, said sustainability reporting requires robust risk management practices and stakeholder engagements. “ESG is about understanding what the needs of our stakeholders are about and creating value for those stakeholders. In a nutshell, ESG reporting has to do with the reputation of organisations, but it can lead to value creation, optimisation of cost, sustainable return on investment,” Khunou said.

Lindiwe Miyambu, chief people officer at the AGSA, said ESG reporting should not just be seen and viewed from only a compliance perspective but also from a human-centred perspective. “When I feel ESG passionately, I think about it as my contribution to making the world better, safer for our children and generations to come,” Miyambu said.

Meanwhile, Elaine Brass, CEO of the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA), said she was encouraged to see more and more chartered accountants coming through and joining the public sector. “I joined the public sector because I believed it was in this sector where I could make a difference. I could make a difference not to the shareholder, I could make a difference to every individual in the country,” Brass said.

If you missed the summit, you can watch it here.