African Bank audit probe open to public

The disciplinary hearing into Deloitte Africa’s audit on African Bank ahead of its collapse in 2014 – which starts today – is an unprecedented move by the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (Irba), says a Business Day report. Although the Audit Profession Act allows for disciplinary hearings in public, this is the first open to the public. The hearing has been set for four days in March and may continue in June and July after an investigation by Irba, which began in December 2014 and was finalised in 2016. ‘The draft allegations were approved and submitted to Deloitte in December 2016, Deloitte responded in June 2017,’ said Irba CEO Bernard Agulhas. The evidence and response were tabled with the Irba investigating committee in October 2017. Agulhas said not all investigations proceed to a disciplinary hearing. If matters are not dismissed due to insufficient evidence they can be recommended for a consent order or, in serious cases, a disciplinary hearing. The report says that the disciplinary advisory committee's opting for a disciplinary hearing open to the public reflects the pressure the authorities are increasingly under to be seen to be taking action against powerful parties regarded as complicit in irregularities dogging the private and public sector.