Page 82 - The Corporate Report Pack

Note from the Editor-in-Chief
Note from the Editor-in-Chief
Colen Garrow has written an opinion piece on the National Budget. He points out that the state has to do more but with less. e raising of revenue without addressing the expenditure side when billions are going down a useless and wasteful pit means that taxpayers do not even know whether the revenue being presently collected is or is not su cient to meet budgetary requirements. As Colen Garrow points out, investors would like to have heard more about ‘how an axe was being taken to failing state-owned enterprises’ and ‘that political ideology was being put aside’.
e e ect of the FIC Amendment Bill on future data requirements is dealt with by Eva Crouwell and Jan Peyper. e Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering (AML) and countering nancing of terrorism (CFT) standards body, of which South Africa is a member, conducted an evaluation of South Africa’s AML for Landscaping 2009. It identi ed a number of shortcomings in South Africa’s primary AML and CFT legislation, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act. e introduction of the FIC Amendment Bill in 2015 looked to address these shortcomings and is aimed at bringing the South African AML and CFT legislation in line with international best practice. As the authors point out, the Amendment Bill results in a shi from a rules-based one-size- ts-all AML and CFT compliance regime to a risk-based framework.
Parmi Natesan of the Institute of Directors South Africa has written an article explaining the change of regimen from apply or explain to apply and explain in King IV. She quotes from my foreword in King IV in which I said the ‘explanation also helps to encourage organisations to see corporate governance not as an act of mindless compliance but something that will yield results only if it is approached mindfully, with due consideration of the organisation’s circumstances’.
Grethe Carr and PJ Veldhuizen have written an article on the Companies Tribunal established under the new
Companies Act. e Companies Tribunal facilitates alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms in the resolution of disputes falling within its jurisdiction. Parties to the dispute must consent to the use of ADR. e Companies Tribunal is currently being underutilised as a means of disputants in a company obtaining redress.
In regard to the National Budget, Matthew Lester has written about a remuneration committee concerning itself with employees tax planning. As he points out, there are some very attractive tax e ciencies legally available to an employee and concludes that employee tax planning is not a dead dog.
e Association of Certi ed Fraud Examiners has written a report that encapsulates a robust analysis of occupational fraud. Occupational fraud schemes can be broken down into three primary categories: asset misappropriation, corruption, and nancial statement fraud. e article includes a description of victim organisations, perpetrators and some actual case results. Fraud has become a major risk for companies in both public and private sectors. is article is most informative and can assist in detecting ‘red ags’.
At the Association of Certi ed Fraud Examiners South Africa function, I was asked whether fraud risk was seen as an increased threat to a business’s sustainability in South Africa. My reply was in the a rmative and I emphasised the signi cant increase in cybercrime. Charles Francois Weber has pointed out in his article that the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2017 indicated an increase in cyberattacks and ranked massive incidents of data fraud and the as the 5th highest risk on their top ve global risks in terms of likelihood. e national response to increased cyber risks has been the dra ing of the Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill, rst published on 28 August 2015 and which is currently in progress to be enacted by Parliament. e scope of this bill is discussed in the article. e following
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