Chair, despite South Africa's having recently been ranked first in the world for the implementation and monitoring of auditing standards, our global competitiveness remains in steady decline. It is therefore imperative that our professional regulatory bodies, such as the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors, deliver world-class training, regulation and policy directives not only for prospective auditors but also for the profession as a whole.
South Africa, like many other countries, has a scourge of corruption continuously assailing our Public Service sector. One could also easily say that white-collar fraud and corruption are endemic and frequently arise in both our public and private sectors.
However, because of its use of taxpayers' monies the public sector must bear our greatest scrutiny and responsibility. It is this sector that is dismally failing the people of South Africa. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure, fraud and corruption must be rooted out at their source and this is where our auditing profession bears great responsibility.
Young auditing professionals must be trained in real needs auditing in order to be able to competently and effectively deal with the myriad challenges they will face, so that they are relevant in practice. Standardisation and regulated forms of candidate auditor training are urgently required and that is what this Bill is actually addressing. Auditors need to be regulated. We also need to ensure that everything is done in such a way that we meet the growing need to ensure that, especially among black candidates, we do have candidates who can be trained.
The specialised training that candidate auditors will now undergo will provide them with the tools, skills and experience necessary to have successful careers in the profession. It is for this reason and those that have been stated in my report that the IFP supports this Bill. Thank you.
Bill read a second time.