Page 19 - Q&A 2019/2020

Revised Accountancy Profession BEE Charter
BEE emphasises skills development

Kitso Tshipa
July 2019

“I run a small accounting firm. We have always tried to be as BEE compliant
as possible given our economic realities. I understand that a revised BEE
charter for the accounting profession has been released for comment which
introduces some key changes for our industry. Is this true?”
You are correct in that a revised Draft Chartered Accountancy (CA) Sector
Code (“Revised Code”) was issued for public comment late in April 2019.
Although the Revised Code aligns extensively with the Generic BEE Codes of
Good Practice, the Skills Development Element has received particular attention
in the Revised Code.

In the write-up to the Revised Code it is emphasised that a shortage of black
chartered accountants exists and that the accountancy profession would need
to grow the number of black persons in the CA profession to reflect the country’s
demographic representation. To do this, the profession wished to incentivise
accountancy firms to invest in skills development and bursaries for black
chartered accountants and so help increase the number of black chartered
accountants over time.

To enforce this, the Skills Development Element has received an additional
10 points allocation under both the QSE and Generic Scorecard, making the
weight of the Skills Development Element substantial compared to the other
scorecard elements under the Revised Code. Also considering the fact that the
Skills Development Element is a Priority Element, requiring 40% of the available
points for the element to be obtained to avoid reducing a BEE level on the
scorecard, further emphasizes the weight that the Skills Development Element
now carries within the overall planning of any accountant firm’s BEE compliance.

Under the QSE scorecard the Skills Development Element is targeted to move
from 25 points to 35 points with a reduction of points under the Enterprise
and Supplier Development Element. Under the Generic scorecard the Skills
Development Element is to move from 20 points to 30 points again with a
concomitant reduction in points under the Enterprise and Supplier Development
Element.

What this means is that accounting firms will have to look very carefully at their
Skills Development planning to ensure that they invest in the appointment,
funding and training of black chartered accountants at their firms, or run a very
real risk of being BEE non-compliant or at least having a poor BEE scorecard
result.

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