There is a throwaway line in Chris Barron’s interview of Claudelle von Eck (Something rotten in corporate SA) that I would suggest begs a little unpacking. This appears to have been a wide-ranging interview, with some castigation of shareholders who should have been applying their minds to their responsibilities (the Companies Act does not assign any such responsibilities to shareholders, but perhaps Von Eck was referring to asset managers). We’re sternly warned at the start of the article that private-sector corruption may be “quite a bit worse than we think”, but are comforted at the end of the page with the assurance that “the vast majority of business leaders are good”. The throwaway line occurs in the middle of all this, when apparent ineffectiveness of the internal audit function is ascribed in part to “a decline in the quality of university graduates”. I looked in vain in the comments section below the article for a torrent of disagreement from the heads of the accounting dep...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.