BICA warns errant accountants

Lindiwe Mozola | Tuesday July 11, 2017 15:50

Public relations and marketing manager, Oupa Gaofise told delegates at a recent breakfast session that failure to register with BICA may attract hefty charges of up to P500,000.

“Botswana lacks skills of professional accountants which is a very necessary skill in contributing towards any economy’s growth. And as BICA, we exist to protect the interest of the public by supplying high standard professional accountants. Therefore, we are bringing every practising accountant to task and if we find out that you are not registered with us you are in trouble.

“Culprits will face hefty charges amounting to P500,000.00 or worse ten years imprisonment; so we urge every firm, organisation to make sure that their accountants are registered with BICA,” Gaofise said. He also urged the public to report anyone they suspect to be a fly by night accountant because they rob people by providing below standard services.

He said they would have no excuse to not charge anyone who has not yet registered because a lot of education on the matter has been disseminated through road shows, workshops and many other forums. Gaofise said BICA prides itself with excellence noting that to date they have a total number of nine graduates.

“Our vision is to produce top class graduates who can work everywhere, that is both local and international as we are now living in a global village. As BICA, we want to transform the accounting industry that will impact largely to the economy of the country. Currently, we have over 3,000 members and it is our hope that more people come on board,” he said.

He said some of the contibuting factors to accountants’ reluctance to register are that they are misinformed on the benefits and some employees feel their bosses are the ones who should pay for their registrations.

He also expressed concern over Palapye residents who failed to turn up in numbers for the event.

 BICA recently launched its 2017-21 strategy in which their vision is to support Botswana’s development through a dynamic and ethical accountancy profession. The new strategy’s key focus areas are to increase revenue generation, increase registration of accountants in the country as well as enhance BICA qualification.