Dube hopes to see Ifac membership upgraded

speaking to chartered governance and accountancy following his election as cgaiZ president, dube said that, while the institute successfully rebranded last year, a great deal still had to be done to ensure that the change of name and the professional designation of members was as widely known as possible.

“a lot still needs to be done to conscientise employers, employees and other professionals,” he said.

The new designation of members as chartered governance professionals made the governance role of its members clearer than the previous designation of chartered secretary, which many people outside the profession associated with secretarial duties rather than with offering professional governance advice, he said.

However, it often took time for name changes to be fully and widely accepted, he pointed out.

although the institute was known as the institute of chartered secretaries and administrators from its establishment in the country in 1971, its qualification still tended to be referred to as cis, the initials of the chartered institute of secretaries, the name by which the institute had been known globally before it merged in 1970 with the corporation of secretaries to become the institute of chartered secretaries and administrators.

one of the institute’s major tasks over the next year would be to make the new name of the institute and the new designation of its members, as well as the significance of the name change, as widely known as possible.

dube said he also hoped that by the time his term in office is over the institute would have become a full member of the international Federation of accountants (ifac). it is currently an associate member.

The Zimbabwe division of the chartered governance institute had chosen to include accountancy in its new name by rebranding as cgaiZ due to its unique position within the chartered governance institute global of including accountancy in its syllabus and being a member of the public accountants and auditors Board, the pan african Federation of accountants, as well as an associate member of ifac.

Because of its unique position in respect of accountancy, it is now offering two pathways to qualification as a chartered governance professional, with specialisation either in governance, risk and compliance (grc) or in accountancy.

dube emphasised the importance of members of the institute working together. He said his theme for the year ahead was “achieving more with Future-fit chartered governance and accountancy professionals”.

He expressed confidence that the level of corruption in Zimbabwe could be brought down to minimal levels.

“i have confidence that at some point we will get there. we cannot eliminate corruption completely but we can minimise it.

“it will come at a time when everyone will realise we are not growing,” he said.

“if you look at competitive indexes related to corruption, you will see that there is no country which has totally zero corruption,” he said.

He believed that cgaiZ and other professional bodies as well could play a role in helping to combat corruption.

in dealing with corruption it was necessary to start at the top. High level corruption had a greater negative impact than the small bribes that took place at lower levels. leaders had to show the way in dealing with corruption, he said.

He said it was important for board members to be appointed on merit rather than on the basis of loyalty. in parastatals there was a tendency for board appointments to be political appointments.

He queried whether all allegations of corruption were true. sometimes a board member might be said to be corrupt when the truth was that he or she was not serving the interests of political masters, he said.

“we do not want board members of authorities who use the corruption card for settling personal scores,” he said.

He said there were members of the institute in influential positions such as corporate secretaries and financial directors who were able to positively influence their organisation’s adherence to good grc practices. He added that he believed this was happening in many instances.