Public comments on amendments to the JSE’s listings requirements — including sections on auditor accreditation — closed on Friday. The amendments should clear up confusion among auditors who say the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (Irba) is blocking the accreditation of new audit partners and hampering transformation, Irba CEO Bernard Agulhas said on Sunday. The board is fighting an uphill battle to implement mandatory audit-firm rotation that it says would tackle auditor independence, which has been watered down due to the same auditing firms serving the same clients for decades. It would also give smaller black-owned firms an opportunity to audit JSE-listed companies. The board has been accused of delaying accreditation for audit partners to sign off on JSE-listed companies’ financial statements. As few as nine black audit partners were signing off on 350 JSE-listed company financial statements, with 255 white auditors getting the lion’s share of the work.
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