Institute to monitor practising accountants

MASERU — Outgoing Lesotho Institute of Accountants (LIA) president Lerata Pekane on Sunday said the institute has introduced a quality assurance and practice review mechanism to monitor the performance of practising accountants.

Pekane was speaking at the LIA annual general meeting that saw Mangangole Tsikinyane being elected new president.

He said the review mechanism was meant to “effectively manage the discharge of its mandate of regulation and efficiency of services of the profession”.

“There is still a need to improve service delivery to members, government and the public at large, such as the involvement in the education programmes for the public sector accountants to supplement the current shortage of professional public sector accountants in the economy,” Pekane said.

He added that LIA disciplinary committee had formulated rules and regulations which will allow the institute to discipline errant members as well as take legal action against non-members who masquerade as accountants.

Pekane also told the meeting that the institute had received a US$435 000 grant from the World Bank to develop the qualification framework for the institute and also to conduct workshops on tax planning and assessment.

Pekane said the qualification framework “will address the financial management problems of both public and private sectors”.

He said the framework has “taken account of the International Federation of Accountants pronouncements and International Education Standards for international benchmarking”.

Pekane added that the repeal of the Accountants Act was in its final stages with a new Bill to regulate the accounting profession set to be presented before parliament before year-end.

He said the LIA was determined to “provide a qualification that is locally, regionally and internationally recognised and accepted”.

He said they also want to “increase public confidence in the accountancy profession by providing high quality standard of professional competence through the services LIA members provide”.