KPMG South Africa has entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (ABASA) – to be represented through the ABASA Business Forum – to create more meaningful and broad-based commitment to transformation in the profession, by providing training and providing market exposure to smaller black-owned firms.
According to Ignatius Sehoole, CEO of KPMG SA: “Transformation is one of KPMG’s strategic pillars, and we view this alliance with ABASA as an opportunity to support smaller businesses, grow skills and support a broader industry commitment to transformation. ABASA is a recognised organisation in the industry, which shares our objective of supporting diversity and growth, and was therefore a strong partnership choice for us.”
“As part of ABASA’s overall strategy we want to facilitate opportunity for our members to actively participate in economic decisions and socio-economic development. Through this MOU with KPMG SA, our smaller black accounting and/or audit practices will be given the opportunity to work directly with KPMG, as full team members on their client engagements – giving them extended opportunity into larger market opportunities and a diverse range of projects,” says Ashley Dicken, president of ABASA.
KPMG is the first large firm to have entered into this agreement with ABASA to date. “We are very proud to work with ABASA on this strategic imperative,” adds Sehoole. “Certainly, if transformation in our sector is to be taken more seriously, then examining ways in which we can uplift the entire industry must be examined. Our commitment to supporting training and delivering full market exposure to smaller black firms, under the KPMG brand, will allow them to gain stronger insight into a full spectrum of clients, which can then be taken back into their own firms to help support growth and development.”
Once KPMG has completed its own internal risk processes, team members from these Firms will be integrated into the KPMG teams and will be trained on the KPMG audit methodology, using KPMG technology. KPMG will take full responsibility for the quality of all work delivered by the staff members and they will be required to comply with KPMG’s strict independence requirements and will also be provided with independence and ethics training as a prerequisite for this.
Firms working with KPMG on this programme will be chosen by an ABASA committee specifically dedicated to this initiative. This committee will work independently to on-board relevant smaller member firms and ensure those selected are correctly assessed in terms of their own business practices and have good standing memberships with not only ABASA but SAICA as well as IRBA.