The CA profession gathered at SAICA’s offices on 23 May 2017 for the official signing of the CA Charter.  In the words of Chantyl Mulder, Executive Director Nation building, this was a red-letter day.  Amidst the interesting times we are facing politically and in the auditing profession, this is a huge accomplishment. The auditing profession was well represented with various stakeholders providing insight on the impact of the CA Charter in our profession.  Our own Brian Eaton explained that this is a milestone, not the beginning and definitely not the end of the journey.

Agreeing on a final version of the Charter was not a quick or easy task - the Charter should align to the Generic Codes of Good Practice, with only industry specific explainable deviations, all 11 constituencies should approve the charter and the Department of Trade and Industry and the National Treasury should accept the Charter.  The process of agreeing on this new Charter started in 2013, after the New Generic Codes of Good Practice was issued.  Numerous meetings and negotiations between constituencies and council members were held but unfortunately no consensus could be obtained before the repeal of the original CA Charter in October 2015.  But, we are not a profession that gives up easily and the process continued swiftly after the repeal and the result is a Charter of which the profession can be proud.  The CA Charter will now be published for public comment before finally being adopted as the CA Charter.

The Charter continues to focus on issues relevant to the profession. These include the emphasis on training for black CAs, the support for historically disadvantaged universities and encouraging the retention of qualified black CAs in the ownership of firms in public practice. Brian Eaton sits on the CA Charter Council, representing the medium firm constituency, and he provides valuable insight at these meetings.

You can download the full document here.