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The government has extended the transitional period for manufacturers and companies under the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) and benefiting from tax incentives from one year to five years after successful negotiations with the European Union (EU).

Key South African government ministers have reached a broad agreement to sell some of the state power utility’s coal-fired power plants to help reduce its debt burden, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said.

The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) is a defined benefit scheme with guaranteed pension benefits. The Fund guarantees a monthly pension upon retirement, and a monthly pension for life to spouse(s) of deceased members.

KPMG LLP was sued for at least $600 million over its role in the insolvency of Dubai private-equity firm Abraaj Group, the latest in a string of complaints of sloppy auditing made against the Big Four firm.

The claimants, two units of Abraaj now in liquidation, allege that KPMG accountants “failed to maintain independence and an appropriate attitude of professional skepticism,” and breached their duty of care when auditing the private-equity firm, according to court documents filed in Dubai on November 3.

If KPMG and its local Lower Gulf subsidiary had complied with their duties, then “irregularities” relating to the firm’s financial statements would’ve been identified sooner, the claimants said.

The allegations are the latest to hit one of the Big Four accountancy firms over poor auditing work. In July, the Malaysian government, 1MDB and their units filed a lawsuit seeking more than $5.6 billion from 44 KPMG Malaysia partners for their role in auditing the state investment fund.

Other Big Four firms have also been embroiled in scandal. Ernst & Young faces accusations it “actively concealed” a six-year fraud from investors over its auditing for hospital operator NMC Health.

A spokesperson for KPMG Lower Gulf said it disputes and will defend the Dubai court’s judgment. The firm undertook “comprehensive actions” to “strengthen our culture, governance and compliance processes,” the spokesperson said. 

Collapse into insolvency

Abraaj, which managed some $14 billion at its peak, collapsed into insolvency in 2018 after being accused of misusing investor funds. The firm’s founder and chief executive officer Arif Naqvi is alleged to have stolen more than $250 million by US prosecutors. He denies any wrongdoing. 

Naqvi, the firm’s founder and CEO, remains under house arrest in London and faces a maximum sentence of up to 291 years in jail if is extradited to the US and convicted. At least one other former employee has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges.

KPMG was Abraaj’s auditor for six years, while Abraaj’s Chief Financial Officer Ashish Dave worked as a partner at KPMG between his two stints as CFO. He was recently hit with a $1.7 million fine by the Dubai Financial Services Authority for his involvement in the scandal.-moneyweb

The City of Windhoek has appointed its Strategic Executive for Finance and Customer Services, Jennifer Comalie as its new Acting Chief Executive Officer for a period of 3 months, with effect from Monday 15 November, 2021.

 Zimbabwe fast-food giant Simbisa Brands, which owns the Chicken Inn and Pizza Inn brands has launched its payment platform, Innbucks, as part of a wider strategy to leverage technology to improve efficiencies and drive growth in the business.

The National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) is currently in the hunt for oil blocks in Angola and Nigeria as the company seeks to aggressively grow its portfolio and play a bigger role in the upstream side of the oil business, Managing Director Immanual Mulunga has announced.

If you ever wondered how much social services cost the City of Windhoek, in the 2020/21 financial year, $574 million was spent against an income of N$30.87 million.

The government has committed to avoid further bailouts of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) over the next three years and confirmed it will “let go” of some SOEs that are no longer considered strategically relevant.

MultiChoice Group, the parent of brands such as DStv and SuperSport, has eked out a 5% improvement in subscribers from a year ago, with most of that growth coming from outside South Africa. The figure for South Africa was just 2%.

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