When anyone mentions his “auditor”, I always ask “Is he a CA?”. The answer is invariably something like “I assume so”.

What??

My last article was prompted by a new client who’s auditor had been guilty of several mis-conducts. I knew he was a registered auditor because he had performed and signed off audits every year on the client’s financial statements.

In frustration, the client was considering reporting him to the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA). I went on to the IRBA website and found that neither he, nor his company were registered. I checked on the SAICA website to see if my client could report him to the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants. Nope, he wasn’t even a CA(SA).

I then noticed that the guy’s company registration number ended /23 whereas an auditor’s company has to end /21, the number given to all professional companies. /23 refers, not to a company, but to a Close Corporation! So this guy wasn’t a professional anything.

So “I assume so” turned out to be the wrong answer. Problem is my client has no professional body to whom he can report the delinquent. The only remaining option is to report him for representing himself as a Registered Auditor when he was not so qualified. That is a criminal offence.

There are crooks out there. This is how you check –

Go onto the website of the accountant’s professional body and search for his registration. Here are some of them.

If he claims to be an auditor https://www.irba.co.za/find-an-ra, if he’s an auditors then he is a CA(SA). You don’t need to check that as well.

If he only claims to be a CA(SA) https://www.saica.co.za/Default.aspx?TabId=1017&language=en-US

If he only claims to belong to SAIPA https://www.saipa.co.za/member-verification/

Every professional body has a similar verification page.

Use it, or suffer the consequences.