Accountancy authority tightens oversight of large firms
Pauline Dikuelo | Thursday October 13, 2016 18:00
This followed an announcement that was made by the Authority that all Public Interest Entities (PIE’s) are required to register with BAOA by the September 30 this year, failure of which would result in penalties.
For this purpose, the definition of PIE is any entity that is listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE), any entity that is supervised by the Bank of Botswana, any entity that is supervised by the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA), any entity which at the end of the preceding accounting period exceeded at least two of the following thresholds; an annual revenue of P300 million, 200 employees, assets of P200 million or liabilities of P100 million not including shareholders equity.
Speaking to Mmegi Business, BAOA’s director of finance and administration Limited Nkani expressed his gratitude on the response noting that the intention is not to punish companies but instead to encourage them to comply with the law.
“Basically, we feel they have responded in large numbers, we didn’t expect to get 75 companies coming forward in a short period of two weeks. This number shows that they have responded as I can assure that almost all big companies that we know have abided,” he said.
He noted that those that might have not come forward might be the ones which are not known to be big by nature citing that is going to be difficult to identify them as the law was referring to big companies in accordance with Botswana economy.
“We have defined the confinement of what the law said. We actually did a structure and put it in the regulation. So we do not know how many companies fall in that scope, however we do believe that most of them have responded,” he said.
According to Nkani, failure to abide by the law would result in a penalty of P500,000 maximum. He said that despite failing to submit on time, if one gives valid reasons they have to look at the facts before making a decision.
The BAOA was established through the Financial Reporting Act, 2010 with the principal objective of providing oversight to accounting and auditing services and to promote standard, quality and credibility of providing financial and non-financial information by entities, including public interest entities.